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Sclater, John Robert 
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The public worship of God 


Digitized by the Internet Archive 
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THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 
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J. BR. P. SCLATER 


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THE PUBLIC WORSHIP 
OF GOD 


BEING THE LYMAN BE*®CHER LECTURES 
ON PRACTICAL THEOLuUL. AT YALE, 1927 


BY 
J.R.P.SCLATER, M.A.(Cantab.) D.D. (St. Andrews) 


MINISTER OF OLD ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH, TORONTO, CANADA 
AUTHOR OF ‘‘MODERNIST FUNDAMENTALISM’” 





GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


COPYRIGHT, 1927, 
BY GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY 


THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 
hier! fr soo 
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERIOA 


TO 
THE DEAR MEMORY 
OF 
JOHN SCLATER 





PREFACE 


When the invitation came to me to deliver the 
Lyman Beecher lectures, a familiar quotation 
came into my mind and remained there,—sutor, 
ne supra cremdam: and I determined that this 
cobbler, at any rate, would endeavour to stick to 
his last. After all, the purpose of the lectureship 
can well be served, when a working minister 
frankly speaks out of his own experience and ex- 
plains, as best he can, the methods which he has 
found effective in practice. The work of the 
ministry has mostly to be done by the rank and 
file: and it is, perhaps, not unseemly that one of 
their own number should have an opportunity 
of discoursing upon the problems he has met and 
has tried to solve. 

These particular lectures (except the last one) 
were delivered extempore, with only rare refer- 
ences to notes; and I have not found it possible 
entirely to recapture them in book form. Con- 
sequently, certain passages have been omitted al- 


together, especially in the chapters on prayer and 
vil 


Vili PREFACE 


preaching. In the lectures, I ventured to give 
practical examples of the disastrous results of 
haphazard and careless methods of preparation 
and delivery—examples which lose their force 
unless illustrated alike by voice and gesture. 
For the rest, however, the book follows closely 
the content, if not the manner, of the spoken 
addresses, 

While, in work of this kind, a man draws 
for the most part from his own experience, it is 
inevitable that he should be indebted also to 
previous writers. An article by Dr. Stalker 
on preaching suggested the passage dealing his- 
torically with the art; and three of the quotations 
in the last chapter were drawn from Dr. Moffat’s 
“Literary Illustrations of the Bible.” But one 
apparent source of inspiration was not, in point 
of fact, known to me, until the lectures were com- 
plete. Readers of Dr. Sperry’s “Reality in Wor- 
ship” will notice an extraordinary similarity be- 
tween some of the ideas in chapter one of this 
book, and those that are to be found in a cor- 
responding chapter of Dr. Sperry’s work. He, 
I notice, remarks a further correspondence in Dr. 
Vogt’s “Art and Religion.” I can only say that 
these lectures were finished before I had read 


PREFACE IX 


either of these books—though I have studied 
them both since with delight and profit. 

Any indebtedness that I owe, in this region, 
is to a teacher of the previous generation. In the 
chapter on prayer, I have paid a tribute to 
the influence and example of the late Principal 
Oswald Dykes of Westminster College, Cam- 
bridge. It is to that fine student of all things 
_worshipful that I, and many others also, owe any 
sensitiveness to devotional seemliness that we 
possess. In particular, the scheme of the mean- 
ings of the Sacrament in chapter six is based on 
a scheme which Dr. Dykes used for instructing 
eatechumens. I have altered it somewhat; and, 
for the form of its explanation, I am entirely re- 
sponsible. Nevertheless, the original suggestion 
came from him. I had his permission to make 
what use of it I would; and, during all my minis- 
try, I have founded upon it when teaching the 
meaning of the Holy Communion. 

Chapters three, four and five contain work that 
was done some years ago, when I had the privi- 
lege of holding the Warrack Lectureship on 
Preaching, in Scotland. And that leads me to 
record the real debt which any working minister, 
who lectures on worship, must owe, but can never 


ae PREFACE 


pay. His true teachers are his people. They 
endure his mistakes; they encourage him to do his 
best; and by their friendship and loyalty help 
him to grow. I have been minister of four 
churches. First in Derby, then in Edinburgh, 
then in Parkdale, Toronto, and now in my pres- 
ent charge. I found kindliness in them all. In- 
deed, young ministers may take heart. Their 
work will bring them in touch with the best that 
is in people; and they will be able to thank God 
upon every remembrance of them. Most of my 
working life, however, has been spent in the sec- 
ond of these—in the New North Church of Edin- 
burgh, with all its memories of students and of 
friendship rich and rare. The members of that 
church, and especially those who worked inti- 
mately in it, will allow me here to remember with 
unfading affection “the friends I lo’ed sae weel 
sae lang ago.” 

To my present congregation (which [I like to 
link with the New North) I am equally indebted. 
They, also, are friends indeed. In particular, 
thanks are due to my secretary, Miss Elsie Watt, 
for indefatigable and very competent assistance, 
and to my colleague, Dr. J. E. Munro, and Miss 
Agnes Swinarton for reading the final proofs. 


PREFACE x1 


One thing about the ministry is that there are 
always willing folk about, ready to lend a helping 
hand. There is a great deal of sheer kindness 
in this world; and we ministers get our fair share. 
At any rate, one “poor brother” has found that 
true in Scotland, and finds it true now in Can- 
ada; and endeavours to give God the praise. 


J.R. P. ScLater. 


Old St. Andrew’s Church, 
Toronto, Canada. 
May 30th, 1927. 





CONTENTS 


Tue OrpER oF WorSHIP . 
Pusiic PRAYER . 
Tue SPpoKEN Worp. 


Tuer PREPARATION OF A SERMON . 


Tue TEacHING Mgruops or Our Lorp . 


THe SACRAMENT 
Tue CELEBRATION . 


Tuer GUIDANCE OF THE WISE . 


PAGH 





THE PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 





THE PUBLIC 
WORSHIP OF GOD 


CHAPTER I. 
THE ORDER OF WORSHIP. 


HE public worship of God is the concern of 
every man. Both those who share in it and 
those who do not, are enriched by its reality and 
reverence, or impoverished by its lack of them. 
For it is the chief of all the ordinary means for 
keeping alive the sense of the Unseen in the com- 
munity. The weekly services of the Church, on 
a day traditionally set apart for them, have an 
effect on society beyond that which they exercise 
_ upon the actual worshippers. The church bell, 
and the sight of families wending their way to 
the sanctuary, are not without influence upon 
those whom Sunday calls only to somnolence or 
golf. Cases are not unknown of men, who 
normally acknowledge God by proxy, waxing 


vigourous in defence of weekly worship, and even 
17 


18 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


joining in it, if they feel that the practice is in 
danger. For they know full well that, at least, 
it keeps a window open to Jerusalem in their 
children’s hearts—and even, it may be, in their 
own. 

If public worship is to render all the service it 
can to society, its component parts need to be dis- 
cerned, that none may be omitted. The object 
of this great act is, of course, God Himself; but 
the worshipper is man—whose sole endeavour, at 
such a moment, should be to present himself as 
he really is, before his Maker. Consequently, 
times of worship are occasions when man is 
brought face to face with himself, and reminded 
of the large, pathetic facts of his own life. They 
afford almost the only ordinary opportunities for 
him to take a steady look at the mystery, which 
is himself. In business he has no time to re- 
member: in pleasure, his anxiety is to forget. 
Few men, apart from the hours of worship, ever 
stand at gaze before the facts of birth and death, 
before their own pitifulness and splendour, their 
transience and their permanence. Yet all men 
know that it is only those who take thought upon 
these things, who grow in wisdom. And it is no 
small service that the Church renders, in a world 


THE ORDER OF WORSHIP — 19 


of shadows and the pursuit of shadows, when it 
affords opportunity to behold the tears of things 
and to touch the trappings of mortality, and thus 
-to move upwards to the place where the Eternal 
— dwells. 

Hence, no apology, surely, is needed for begin- 
ning with a consideration of the best means of 
arranging services which have so deep a signifi- 
cance. Indeed, it is a comfort to observe the in- 
terest that is being shown in all our Reformed 
Churches, in the matter of a proper Order of 
Service. The ancient fears, that due arrange- 
ment and preparation of worship savour of the 
Pope or of Black Prelacy, have been largely 
assuaged: and all our branches of the Church are 
engaged in the production of service books, which 
purport to be guides to ministers and congre- 
gations. Some of us have observed with delight 
what attention our people are willing to give 
to discussions of the ascending scale of meanings, 
which a rightly ordered act of worship ought to 
possess. Moreover, the unlovely has had its day 
and tawdriness is following it into banishment. 
Squat ugliness is no longer regarded as a mark 
of spirituality; nor is it thought necessary to be 
formless in order not to be formal. These are 


20 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


happier days for all who care for beauty of ex- 
pression. Perhaps it is a reaction from the war: 
but more men care for loveliness than was the 
case a quarter of a century ago. 

But a situation of that sort is full of danger. 
In the rebound from the bare, it is easy to fall 
into the meaningless. In practice, the “beautify- 
ing” of our services often means the introduction 
of responses or of music, which have no relation 
to a concerted act of worship; just as the “decora- 
tions” which are splashed about our walls have 
no relation to the fact that they are the walls ofi 
a church. Indeed, some modern “beautiful” ser- 
vices are more distressing than the stern worship 
that had a loveliness of its own, because it sought 
none. Tor these old services possessed a unity 
peculiar to themselves. They proposed worship 
through the mind, with no appeal to the senses 
at all; while their modern successors, by ranging 
aimlessly up and down the gamut of religious 
expression, lose unity, and thus the first condi- 
tion of beauty. 

Consequently, all ministers need to give time 
and thought to the structure of their services. In 
making the suggestions that follow, I have par- 
ticularly in mind those, who, being of the Puritan 


THE ORDER OF WORSHIP — 21 


and Covenanting lineage, find themselves in con- 
gregations, which have not much of this world’s 
gear, and cannot command the services of first- 
rate musicians or erect churches of architectural 
distinction. Some books that have recently ap- 
peared contain admirable guidance for parishes 
inhabited by millionaires. But most men work 
amongst poor folk and inherit buildings in which 
ornate worship is as out of place as etchings in a 
kitchen. What is needed is an appreciation of 
the principles of reformed worship, together with 
a simple outline of the ascending movements in- 
volved, which may either be left simple or be 
adorned with all that art can supply. It is to 
the discovery of such principles, and to the de- 
vising of such a scheme, that we must now set 
ourselves. 


I. 


But we must first clear the ground. We all 
know that in the matter of order we have 
come into hopeless confusion. In many of our 
churches, even now, nobody (with the possible 
exception of the minister, and he is a doubtful 
exception) knows what is going to happen next. 
“It is true that most city churches have printed 


22 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


orders; but whether the next hymn is to express 
praise, or penitence, or the missionary spirit, is 
a secret hidden until the hymn-book be opened; 
and when it comes to prayer, the congregation 
wanders, as on uncharted seas, moving from 
thanksgiving to intercession, from adoration to 


confession, and back again and round about and 


up and down. The result is that we sing with the 
spirit, but not with the understanding ; and that 
the “long prayer” has become a clear invitation 
to inattention. Cuan My a al 
And yet there be some that say, why have an 
order at all? For, say they, an order becomes a 


routine, and a routine is the parent of arut. It > 


is familiarity, they maintain, that breeds inatten- 
tion; whereas the unexpected and the diversified 
are the sources of sustained interest. In their 
support, they cite the example of such men as 
Dr. Joseph Parker and Mr. Spurgeon. The 
former often followed his own fancy in the matter 
of order, while the latter, in his advice to his 
students, explicitly told them to change the order 
at their will. Their modern pupils lend ready 
ears to such counsel. It is reported that a minis- 
ter, not long ago, was perturbed by the routine 
of Holy Communion, and so, to give variety, he 


tn te i = a. 


THE ORDER OF WORSHIP — 23 


sometimes administered the bread first and some- 
times the wine. Anything f for a change! An in- 
stance such as that puts a fool’s-cap on the whole 
tendency, but rather undeservedly; for there are 
_ certain types of service in which the unexpected 
plays an important part; and, in suggesting 
guiding principles, it is necessary to distinguish 
services of that sort. 

Now, there are two classes of services: as minis- 
ters have for long acknowledged by attempting 
a different type of sermon in the evening. My 
plea is that the distinction should be marked also 
_ in the tone and order of worship. ‘The two sorts 
may be called (1) Services of Worship and (2) 
Services of Mission. ~The former of these are a 
supreme task of the Church and are ends in them- 
selves. The latter are means to an end—namely, 
the extension of the kingdom. In Services of 
Mission, we may aim at diversity as much as we 
please, within the bounds of decency. As to that 
I have nothing to say; each man must work out 
his own methods, with due regard to his own per- 
sonality and the type of community in which he 
is working. But in the case of Services of Wor- 
ship, the situation is altogether different. In 
them the congregation is engaged, as a unity, in 


24 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


an act which requires a common understanding 
of every movement. The purpose cannot be ful- 
filled unless every member knows what he is do- 
ing and why he is doing it: and all this is impos- 
sible without an order. 

Moreover, an order is demanded by two com- 
plimentary facts: namely, the Diversity and 
Unity of every congregation. Each body of wor- 
shippers is diverse, because it contains individuals 
in every kind of religious mood. One man will 
chiefly desire to confess his sins, while the next 
man’s heart will be a tumult of thanksgiving. 
All of these moods have to be met; and an 
order is essential to secure that they shall be 


met. Otherwise, the leader will impose his own 


mood on the people, a thing that happens every 
Sabbath Day. But no less important is the unity 
of a congregation. The Object of Worship is 
One; and there is a “man in men,” that responds 
uniformly, in normal circumstances, to His pres- 
ence. Moreover, in the movement of “the man 
in men” towards God, all the diverse needs of 
the congregation are met. Our task, then, is to 
discover that normal response, and then to ex- 
press it in the sequence of our worship. 


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THE ORDER OF WORSHIP 25 


II. 


Two principles immediately make themselves 
manifest, without which no worship can be ade- 
quate. We may call them the principles of Al- 
ternation and of Ascension. Each deserves a 
little separate study. 


1. The Principle of Alternation. 


When a man approaches God, he will remem- 
ber on the one hand, that it is God that he is 
| approaching, and, on the other, that it is he that 

1S approaching God. Inevitably, he will tend to 
swing from the thought of the holiness of the 
Worshipped, to the unworthiness of the wor- 
shipper: from God’s law, to his own need of help: 
from the knowledge of God’s everlasting mercy, 
to the answering thankfulness of his own heart. 
He will move rhythmically between Vision and 
Response. His worship will become an exchange 
between perception and his reaction thereto. Re- 
ceiving from God and giving to God will follow, 
wave-like, one upon the other. 

At this point, I find myself in some disagree- 
ment with those who see in worship only a series 


26 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


of developing attitudes on the part of the wor- 
shipper. They begin with Vision, indeed, but 
then proceed through Humility to Vitality and 
thence to Illumination and Dedication. That is 
good and helpful, as far as it goes; but it seems 
to miss the point that each response of the soul 
is conditioned by a new perception of God. True 
worship begins and ends with Vision, just as 
Dante’s upward flight of the soul began with the 
sight of the Hill of Cleansing and ended with 
the flash of the unveiling of the Divine Reality. 
And as it thus begins and ends, so worship de- 
velops with new unfoldings of the Divine char- 
acter, which call forth new answers from men, 
who, all the while, are drawing nearer to God, 
and, thus, discovering more clearly the Heavenly 
Father’s face. Each Vision and Response is con- 
nected both with that which goes before and that 


which comes after; but they have a special rela- 


tion to each other. A rightly ordered service 
thus consists in a sequence of pairs, consisting of 
a thought of God and the answer thereto, until 
we reach the final unveiling of the God of Grace 
and love and communion, in remembrance of 
whom we leave His house, to take up confidently 
our daily tasks. 


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THE ORDER OF WORSHIP 27 


2. The principle of Ascension. 


In any considered approach to God, various 
emotions, it is clear, are developed in a normal 
mind. But it is not so generally recognized that, 
ordinarily, these are developed in an ascending 
scale. If we take the religious movement of the 
race as a whole, as it is displayed in the Bible, 
we can perceive an_ ascension from fear to awe, 
from awe to joy, and from j joy to love. Our own 
experience corroborates this. The fear of the 
Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the end of 
the story is to know and to rest in the love that 
passeth knowledge. And, midway, fear blends 
with awe: and awe at God’s majesty moves into 
awe at His redeeming passion, whence springs 
joy that to ourselves is given new power and new 
life. From this we discover our key to the prob- 
lem as to how worship must psychologically pro- 
ceed. Beginning with an attempt to see the 
Vision of God high and lifted up, we progress 
along an inevitable movement of consequent fear 
blending into awe, and thence to a new unveiling 
of the Divine nature, whence spring joy and love. 
Once a minister has this sequence of mood clearly 
in his mind, the ordered ascent of his prayers will 


28 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


be secure; and there will be no more of the un- 
charted seas. He has discovered a guiding prin- 
ciple that will not fail him; for it is implanted 
in human nature, and, therefore, in his own. 

But the ascent is not steady. As each new 
vision of God is perceived, there are often back- 
washes of feeling. ‘This is especially true in the 
initial stages of worship, where we are thinking 
of God’s holiness and of our inability to meet His 
demands. This backward swing must, I think, 
find expression in our order, as will hereafter be 
indicated. But the main movement is upwards, 
until we are lost in wonder, love and praise. 

I daresay you have seen those clever gymnasts, 
who, beginning on a low-set trapeze, by a swing 
forward and backward gain momentum to catch 
a trapeze higher up, and so gradually ascend 
from bar to bar, until they reach the highest set 
before them. It is a crude image; but it may 
serve. In the main, our progress is simply up- 
ward in worship: but we require the backward 
movement to pass from fear and awe to joy. The 
depth of our need, and the depth of the waters 
crossed to satisfy it, must be realized before we 
can worthily praise the Deliverer. And all this 








THE ORDER OF WORSHIP 29 


a leader in worship will have in his mind as he 
sets himself to his task. 


III. 


Now that we have cleared the ground, and laid 
down these general principles, it is possible to 
deal with those practical problems, which are our 
chief concern. Let me ask you to imagine a body 
of normal people met together on a Sunday 
morning in an average church for the main act 
of weekly worship. Conceive them dropping in 
by twos and threes until eleven o’clock strikes, 
and the duty of the day has to be begun. What 
has to be done first? The answer is easy: we 
_ must draw near to God. We are not ready to 

worship yet. We have to “go unto the altars of 
the Lord.” Our bodies may be in church, but 
‘our minds have to be brought and kept there, too. 
Wherefore, we set down first this highly im- 
portant matter of | 


The Approach. 

_ This consists of three steps: first, the call to 
_ attention; second, the attempt, in common, to 
_ realize the presence of God; and, third, the re- 


30 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


quest for Divine aid in the enterprise on which 
we are about to engage. 

Now, all this is of real importance. “Well 
begun is half-done.” It is the first step that 
goes far to determine all the rest; and a minister 
should put forth a good deal of effort to create 
stillness and a sense of the Unseen at the begin- 
ning. Before the service opens, the average wor- 
shipper is anything but concentrated on the mat- 
ter in hand. We are all human, and thoughts 
naturally wander about the church, noting late- 
comers, suspecting absentees and appraising new 
attire. God forgives it all, no doubt, for it is 
He that hath made us, and He remembers that 


we are dust. But it makes it the more important — 


that certain preliminary steps should be taken to 
unify the congregation upon the duty before 
them. So first there comes— 

(a) The Call to Worship, which takes the 
place of the “bell” in the Roman services. It 
may take the simplest of forms: indeed, the words 
“Let us worship God,” said by a man who is 
listening to them himself, are all that is needed. 
But we must give them their full value as we 
say them. Let them (or whatever other words 
we use) be preceded by a slight pause, after we 


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THE ORDER OF WORSHIP © 31 


stand up. Our object is to still our people; and 
silence on our part is often the most effective way 
to do it. And as we utter the call, let us make 
an honest effort to hear it ourselves. We shall, 
thereby, communicate the stillness which our 
own hearts feel. | 

And what follows, inevitably, upon the call to 
attend? Why, clearly, a concerted attempt to 
secure, In common— | 

(b) The Realization of the Presence of God. 
Silence again is helpful, followed by such words 
as these, said or sung together—“ Holy, holy, holy 
is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of 
His glory.” It is difficult to find words more 
suitable than those of the Sanctus in Isaiah VI 
to express the united sense of God’s majesty, 
which a congregation ought to endeavour to feel 
as they approach Him. Unfortunately, this 
sometimes is used in historic liturgy at quite a 
different part of the service; and we ought to 
follow historic usage, when we can. But the au- 
thority of Isaiah for the use of these words, as 
the expression of our first Vision of God, may 
| justify us in departing from the later, though 
_ venerable, practice. However, we must find 
_ words of some kind, which can be used in common 


82 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


by the people, to express a thought of Him to 
whom they are approaching, which will stir in 
them that sense of right fear and awe, which is 
the beginning of wisdom in worship as in every- 
thing else. 

Assuming, then, that the people’s attention is 
rightly directed and that they are, severally, re- 
minding themselves of the separateness of the 
object of their worship, what happens next? The 
answer suggests itself. They must ask God, 
without whose help no man can even approach 
Him, to aid them in their service. This they do 
in— 

(c) The Prayer of Invocation, which is a call 
to God for aid in a particular enterprise—namely, 
the enterprise of that morning’s worship. ‘Too | 
much care cannot be given to that prayer. A 
minister who does not know exactly how he is — 
going to phrase it, before he goes into the pulpit, ~ 
is seriously amiss. It should be short, cast in the — 
collect-form, and should concern itself solely 
with the matter in hand. A perfect example is 
the opening collect of the Anglican Communion ~ 
Office—“O, Thou before whom all hearts are — 
open”: and a man, who finds the composition — 
of prayers especially difficult, might do worse © 











THE ORDER OF WORSHIP — 38 


than use this so expressive and so apt invocation 
of God’s help every Sunday. Its delivery should 
never be hurried; each phrase should be quietly 
emphasized; so that all the worshippers may be 
touched with a sense of the magnitude of their 
request, as they appeal to God to cleanse the 
thoughts of their hearts that they may worthily 
magnify His holy Name. 

With these three steps taken, the Approach is 
ended. We have gone unto the Altars of the 
Lord. We are ready now to enter on the morn- 
ing’s noble task, which henceforth must proceed 
upon the natural ascending alternations of Vision 
and Response. You observe that the alternation 
_has already displayed itself. The thought of 
God has sent us asking help to worship. We 
shall find that a similar interchange will compel 
itself into our service to the end. 


Iv. 


The Act of Worship. 


A. good image of our attitude as we enter on 
our enterprise is that suggested in the most 
_ familiar of the songs of Ascent. We lift up our 
eyes unto the hills in— 


34 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


(a) The Opening Adoration. ‘This is rightly 
and properly sung by the congregation together. 
We have to discover some hymn, which will con- 
nect itself with the Approach and will conclude 
with a statement of some aspect of the majesty 
of God, in which we can worthily adore Him. 
There is none better than that “grand old Puri- 
tan anthem,” the 100th Psalm, set to Léon Bour- 
geois’ noble tune. It carries on from what has 
gone before, with its call to the whole earth to 
“sing to the Lord with cheerful voice’; and it 
ends with the Vision splendid of Him whose ~ 
“truth at all times firmly stood and shall from — 
age to age endure.” ‘Those who are in perplexity — 
to find hymns which precisely fit into the various © 
parts of the service—and it is a sore business — 
to light on exactly what we want—might do a 
deal worse than take a look at the Scottish — 
Metrical Psalms. 'They will find them peculiarly — 
rich in the noblest and simplest forms of opening 
Adoration. | 

This done, there can be no question what we — 
must do next. The effect of the first unveiling 
of God has been the same on humanity from the | 
beginning: and it will be the same until that 
end comes, when sin shall be no more. ‘The 





THE ORDER OF WORSHIP — 35 


knowledge, that the Lord our God is righteous 
altogether, forces into our minds that related 
painful knowledge, that our thoughts are not His 
thoughts nor our ways His ways. Wherefore, 
our own nature compels us immediately to— 
(b) The Prayer of Confession, and for Par- 
don and Peace, about which we need say little, 
except that it should be brief and as intimate, 
definite and sincere as we can make it—never 
forgetting, of course, that we are praying in 
public and on behalf of a congregation. Parts 
_ of the 51st Psalm will give us a model. | 
“There “may, however, be some difference of 
opinion as to what should follow. Many of our 
teachers send us at once to the regions of God’s 
loving-kindness, whence He sends His healing 
and His strength. But I cannot think that the 
matter is quite as simple as all that. God does 
not let us off just because we say we are sorry; 
and He never, in any circumstances, ceases to de- 
mand obedience to His moral law. That surely 
ought to be expressed in every service. The 
weakness of some modern worship lies precisely 
here—that we have failed to make manifest 
austerity, and sternness, as if the godly | life were 
roses, Toses all _the..way. Calvin knew better, 


36 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


when he began every service with the recitation 
of the ten commandments. Somewhere in the 
order there ought to be given a glimpse of the 
high and lofty places of that Law, which Christ 
came not to destroy but to fulfil. And, if it comes 
in naturally anywhere, it comes in at the point 
we have now reached. It is true to experience, 
that the first response of the Divine to the peni- 
tent is a renewed demand for obedience. A sense 
that we must never desert from the paths of 
righteousness comes over the mind, when earliest 
we turn to God; and we realize that, whatever 
God may be going to do as a result of our cry for 


mercy, He is not going to change His mind about — | 


godliness. ‘This we may term— 

(c) The First Divine Response, which will 
consist in a short reading (or singing) of 
some passage of Scripture, which sets forth the 
moral responsibilities which God insists we shall 
shoulder. The usual plan would, of course, be 
to recite the ten commandments: but these basal 
statutes of the embryo Hebrew state do not 
“strike to within,” on the modern mind. I think 
it better to vary the passages here, using Deut. 
VI:1-9 as the norm. But, whatever we may do 
in the selection of passages, we must not fail to 


4 
| 
he 
i 


&. 
ia 


he oe? eae 


eT ae a 








THE ORDER OF WORSHIP = 37 


bring in some clear expression of the moral law. 
- Otherwise, we shall be true neither to the human 
nature we are expressing, nor to the God whom 
we are worshipping. 

And what next? Again, we have only to ask 
our own hearts. What do we do, when con- 
science is hammering at us—when the stern Voice 
within is calling? We go down on our knees 
and tell God that, if obedience is to be forth- 
coming, He must help. Instinctively there fol- 
lows— | 

(d) The Prayer for Aid. Very likely, we 
shall find it best to use a hymn or anthem for 
this. I am not concerned with the mode in which 
we work out the details: I am anxious only about 
the framework. And, at this point, a very human 
ery for the gift of the Divine strength must 
come in, or our worship will again be untrue to 
our need. 

And then, what? Why, the Christian Evangel 
tells us. We have not only said that we are 
sorry, but we have faced the fact of conscience 
and have consequently flung ourselves on God: 
and the Bible was written and Christ lived and 
died that we may believe that God hears that 


388 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


cry and answers it. Wherefore, put down at 
once— 

(e) The Second Divine Response: which also 
should consist of a passage or passages from 
Scripture, telling of the Divine Compassion; of 
the Love that will not let go; of the “how much 
more” of God. 

‘Now, this opens a vexed and difficult quéstion. 
You observe that we have at most two readings 
from Scripture, and that each is prescribed as 
to subject. That implies that large portions of 
the Bible will never be read at the main occasion 
of worship; and that the old idea of a lectionary, 
which gradually takes us through the whole of 
the Scriptures, will be set on one side. I know 
that many people gain their only knowledge of 
the Word through reading from the pulpit— 
more’s the pity. But that, surely, is only a reason 
for securing that the passages read shall be of 
the highest religious value. The ,Anglican ser- 
vice, so beautiful with all its shortcomings, is 
often hopelessly jarred by a couple of long, 
irrelevant lessons from the two Testaments. 
People who worship are hungry sheep, and 
should be fed from the Word of God. It seems 
a pity to offer them David’s pebbles from the 








THE ORDER OF WORSHIP — 39 


brook, or the measurements of the Tabernacle, 
in place of bread. Consequently, some of us 
will be of the opinion, that, in order to secure 
the full emotive sequence of the service, a lec- 
_ tionary should be chosen which will confine it- 
self, first, to the expression of the demands of 
righteousness, and second, to a statement of the 
Everlasting Mercy of Him who makes with -us 
a Covenant of Aid. And, if any one objects 
that he wants to read a passage suitable to his 
sermon, I reply that he can do that immediately 
before he gives out his text, if he has a mind to: 
and, further, that if passages setting forth God’s 
Jove in redemption are not relevant to his preach- 
ing, he had better take a thought and mend. 

So here, in a passage taken from the N.T. (or, 
better, in short passages from both Testaments), 
we are given a Vision of the God of grace, “visi- 
bly in the world at war with sin.” Whence, by 
natural alternation, we proceed to— 

({) The Related Responses of Thanksgiving 
and Intercession. 'The former of these may be 
given in prayer-form or in song, or in both. It 
may be expressed by the people together, or by 
the choir. But let it be thanksgiving: and let 


40 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


it be emphatic—for we have a multitude of bene- 
fits for which to give thanks to our Father. 
And here, let me digress into a protesting ques- 
tion. Who started this trick of beginning ser- 
“with the entertaining aift, possessed by his race, 
for inversion? It is quite obviously and start- 
lingly wrong, if the progress of an order of wor- 
ship is to be psychologically true. The right 
place for a Doxology (or, better, the Te Deum) 
is after the second Divine Response. We may 


suppose the reason for its introduction was the. — 


semi-laudable desire to “brighten” services: but 
I confess that I never see prosperous citizens 
fling back their shoulders, and, full- throatedly, 
praising God from whom all blessings flow, at 
the moment when they ought to be trying to be 
still and know that He is God, without feeling 
that I have strayed into a Rotary or Kiwanis 
* convention instead of into a church. No doubt 
the practice will be difficult to stop: but one can 
at least deliver one’s soul by protesting. , 

Following upon the Act of Thanksgiving, 
there naturally comes the Act of Intercession; 
unless, indeed, some form of Creed is used. If 
so, this is the place to recite it. ‘The difficulty is 





THE ORDER OF WORSHIP § 41 


to find a form of words at once historical and 
expressive of sincere, modern belief. If the 
Church is to declare its faith, it must be the faith 
of the living Church that is declared. A simple 
Creed, in the language of Scripture, would be 
a great gain, if we could all agree on it. Mean- 
time, most of us will tend to move straight on to 
the Act of Intercession, which follows so reason- 
ably on Thanksgiving. We have been shown our 
Heavenly Father listening to our cry and, like 
children, we want to tell Him all about it—es- 
pecially, about the hidden desires of our hearts 
for those we love. And we have been reminding 
ourselves of all the good things we have received, 
and, surely, like Christian folk, we want others 
to share in them, too. So, we intercede. 
Now this is the high-water mark of endeavour 
in our worship. It takes the place of the Sacra- 
“ment the ordinary service: for, in part, it is 
sacrificial. When we intercede, on the one hand 
we ask from God what we desire to obtain for 
others, but have no means of securing, apart 
from God: on the other hand, we offer ourselves, 
implicitly, as agents, by whom the benefits for 
which we plead may be granted. This is, mani- 
festly, a high and serious business: and the con- 


42 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


gregation must be keyed up to it. For this is 
the moment of Dedication. Intercession is a poor 
half-thing, if we do not desire the objects, which 
we are asking at God’s hands, sufficiently to be 
able to say, whole-heartedly, that we are willing 
to be used by God for their accomplishment. If 
reality in worship is to be secured, the people 
must be alive and purposeful at this point: and 
the minister will give great pains to keep atten- 
tion and to create an atmosphere of urgency dur- 
ing this prayer. It is rather humbling that it 
is notorious that the Intercession has often been 
the most wearisome part of the service. The next 
chapter will deal with the minister’s task as a 
leader in prayer: but here it is sufficient to say 
that, whatever else he prepares for, he € must pre- 
pare for the act in which he and his people put 
themselv res ii God’ S hand as His servants. ~ 
‘When the Intercession is ended, I like to sum 
up all our prayers in the prayer of our Lord, I 
think it comes best as a climax, and, unquestion- 
ably, it should be used at every service. But, 
never gabble it, as some so painfully do. De- 
liberately restrain the pace of utterance, in order 
that each clause may be duly alive in the mind. 
And, it is not a bad thing to have it printed in 





THE ORDER OF WORSHIP = 43 


front of you, where you can see it. Memory 
plays strange tricks with us in the pulpit—es- 
pecially with familiar words. I have thrice, in 
public, stuck completely in this prayer: and the 
memory of that discomfort makes me always 
read it. And, then, when all has been gathered 
up in Christ’s own words, it is seemly to follow 
with— 

(g) The Symbol of Dedication, in the Offer- 
tory, and some worthy word of Consecration and 
renewed offer of service—a word in which it 
would be well if the people could join. If they 
do not, there is something to be said for always 
using the same form of words, which the people, 
knowing, can readily follow and adopt. 


Vv. 


Now, at this point, if we choose, we may lift 
the congregation to the height of the Benediction, 
and the morning worship will be complete. We 
have moved from Preparation to Vision, from 
Vision to Humility: from Humility we have 
_ gained a new, austere Vision which has deepened 
Humility; thence we have risen to the Vision 
gracious, which, giving Illumination, spells Vital- 


44 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


ity; and, then, after consequent Thanksgiving, 
we have dedicated ourselves to that God, whom 
we finally see as the changeless God of all grace 
in the Benediction. Our worship, if we choose, 
is complete. 

But Protestantism believes in the vital impor- 
tance of the illumination of the mind. Where-— # 
fore, we round off the service with a particular | 
unveiling of God and His will through : a hitman 
personality—that is, with a Sermon. The minis- 
ter ceases to be “the man-in-men”’; he turns from 
being the representative of the people to become 
a teacher and, possibly, a prophet. In order to 
let the mind move easily from the dominant acts 
of thanksgiving and intercession, he asks the 
congregation to sing a hymn appropriate to his 
sermon. He then preaches—always remember- 
ing that he and his people are still worshipping 
God. A quiet dismission hymn is, I think, de- 
sirable to let down attention before the people 
go into the street: but it should be short, simple 
and always familiar—a “grave, sweet melody.” 
Then, with the ancient words of blessing—and 
let it be remembered that the benediction is a 
benediction and not a prayer—the eyes of the 
congregation are turned to the God of grace and 








THE ORDER OF WORSHIP 45 


love and communion; and, with that comforting 
vision before us, we turn again to the daily ways 
of life. 

Now, this puts the sermon where it belongs. 
It has a place, a great place and a place all its 
own, in the scheme of worship: but it is a sup- 
plementary place. It gives an opportunity for 
“particularizing” Vision; and therefore it is an 
act of great dignity. But it is not the crown 
of worship: and the other parts of the service are 
not “preliminaries.” Protestantism did a great 
service when it reéxalted preaching: but it went 
off thé rails when it did so at the expense of 
praise-and prayer.” Preaching will not lose, but 
gain, whén itis seen in proper proportion, and 
when it is rightly related to other acts, in which 
worship obtains a more complete expression. 


Vi. 


The Practical Application of the Order. 


Such, then, in outline is our scheme—the 
frame-work into which we have to fit the details 
of service. None of us will deny that the prac- 
tical difficulties of adhering to a psychological 
sequence are serious. Apart from finding suit- 


46 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


able hymns and readings, what are we to do with 
Announcements, and Children’s Addresses, and 
Anthems and Solos and Responsive Readings, 
and all the little diversities, with which we 
endeavour, usually dismally, to “brighten” the 
service ? 

As to Announcements we are all agreed: they 
are a public nuisance. Cut them down, if you 
cannot cut them out. Print them, if possible, 


and tell the congrégation to read them. If that ; 


is too expensive, let them come after the worship-— 


Series is complete, Just before the hymn béfore 
the sermon. In any casé, decline to allow your 
pulpit to be made the free advertising-agency for 
all the events of the parish. Only announce 
churchly doings. And, above all, please do not 
be funny. Perhaps some psychologist can ex- 
plain why the giving out of announcements in 
church is such a temptation to alleged humour- 
ists. Not, indeed, that humour is out of place in 
preaching, as we shall see later on, from the 
greatest of all examples. But the kind of wit- 
ticisms to which the intimations tempt us are, as 


Dr. Johnson called the merriment of parsons, — 
“mighty offensive.” It is best to be on the safe — 


side, and delete them altogether. 





THE ORDER OF WORSHIP = 47 


Children’s Addresses, also, are on the whole, 
best omitted. It is true that people like them; 
but that does not prove a great deal. It is human 
to like candy. As a rule, these addresses affect 
the atmosphere and break the continuity. If the 
children are to be directly addressed, let the re- 
marks to them be woven into the main sermon. 
For the rest, let the young children go out, and 
be looked after suitably by skilled women. And 
let the older ones sit still, and learn, by suffering, 
in their youth. 
~The “diversifyings” of the service can be left 
to each man’s individual taste; always provided 
that they fit into the general scheme which we 
have been considering. Liturgical and respon- 
sive forms of prayer or praise can, obviously, be 
easily used. So can responsive readings, though, 
I confess, I quéstion their worship-value. When 
thei# curious mumble comes up from the congre- 
gation, it is as if the clock had been put back, 
and grown folk were little boys and girls at Sun- 
day School again. After all, the Psalms were 
meant to be sung, and not read, antiphonally. 
If we can rise to antiphonal singing, well and 
good. However, there is no law against a man 
adopting any method which keeps the attention 


48 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


of the congregation on the business in hand; 
but, every device must be estimated by its value 
for worship, and no diversity must be permit- 
ted which intrudes on the psychological order. 
Many of the “items” and “numbers” intended 
to brighten, sin dreadfully against that canon. 
They are, all too frequently, meaningless inter- 
jections suitable enough at an entertainment, 
but hopelessly out of place in church. After all, 
a church service is not an entertainment: it is 
an act of worship. The distinction is simple: 
and may reasonably be observed. 

There remains the question of our music—a 
much more difficult matter. The mere choosing 


of hymns is a delicate task. We have to remem- — 


ber the point in the service at which a hymn is 
to come; the festival, it may be, of the Church 
year, which falls on the Sunday for which we 
are preparing; the diverse tastes of our musical 
high-brows and musical low-brows; and we must 
not forget old-time associations of particular 
words and tunes. No wonder so many ministers 
are prematurely bald. Above all, you have to 
remember your organist and choir. An ingen- 
ious commentator has suggested that St. Paul’s 
thorn in the flesh was the music committee at 


aay a = 


~~ 





THE ORDER OF WORSHIP = § 49 


Corinth. Musicians, perhaps because they use 
that thought-medium which is supposed to be 
the language of heaven, are occasionally a little 
unearthly here below. Sometimes, one feels that 
_ Providence has compensated them for their noble 
gifts by denying them a whole share of common- 
sense. At any rate, a young minister will be 
very lucky if he does not find, sometime in the 
course of his career, that his church music affords 
him personal, as well as liturgical problems. 
This, at least, we all need to remember—that 
choirs are part of a congregation set to lead in 
a particular effort of worship, and not a separate 
guild with rights and privileges of their own. 
The ideal will be reached, when the whole con- 
gregation takes enough trouble about the music 
to become its own choir,—a consummation de- 
voutly wished, I am sure, by all musicians. 

As things are, however, we must do with things 
as things will do with us; and our choirs are not 
only necessary, but are, normally, very helpful 
aids to worship. Some simple rules can be laid 
down, within whose bounds choirs should work. 

They should, for instance, sit as in a church 
and not as if at a concert. The half-moon ar- 
rangement in front of the pulpit, to which many 


50 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


of us are condemned, is the worst conceivable. 
It is bad for the music, and distracting to the at- 
tention both of choir and congregation. The 
proper place for them is a chancel or the back 
gallery. 

They should not attempt music beyond their 
range. ‘That is a pearl of wisdom, if you like. 
But people, apparently, dislike acting on the 
over-obvious. 

And their music should be churchly. Some of 
the solos sung in church only save themselves 
from being infuriating by being so comic. Those 
of us who are saved from this trial have much 
to be thankful for. On the other hand, good 
anthems and solos sung in sympathetic voices 
by singers who are themselves religious, have 
a worship value of the highest degree. They 
can take the place of prayers—very many of our 
hymns are suitable for that, too—if they are 
properly placed in the order of service. If co- 


operation is secured between the minister and — 
the musicians—and it is usually easily enough ~ 


obtained—and if there is mutual understanding 


as to the progression of the service, the choir — 
part can be of the first importance in creating — 


atmosphere. 





THE ORDER OF WORSHIP 51 


But responsibility in the matter of music does. 
not end with the choir. It lies at least as heavily 
on the congregation. ‘There are two kindnesses 
which we may reasonably ask from our people 
in this region. First, those who cannot sing, 
should not. Congregational singing should not 
only be congregational, but singing. ‘There are 
many amongst us. whom the Lord evidently 
meant to sing with the spirit and with the under- 
standing™also; and to leave it at that, A man 
with~a voice that has been treated with a fret- 
saw may want to sing: but, in common Christian 
charity, he should restrain himself. And, second, 
a congregation should educate itself in taste in 
psalmody and endeavour to get away from our 
distressing hymn traditions. It was Luther, I 
am told, who first said that the Devil should 
not have an exclusive right to the best hymn 
tunes: and it was Mr. Spurgeon who more re- 
cently gave voice to that opinion. It is a pity 
that these eminent men gave expression to 
such foolishness. The truth is, of course, that 
the Devil never had, nor can have, any of the 
best tunes. He jazzes and syncopates and is 
melodiously saccharine: but he hates the best 
tunes, and, knowing their influence for good, 


52 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


he tries to put the man in the street up against 
them by calling them “high-brow.” An organ- 
ist who stands up against all that type of opinion 
deserves respect: for he is standing for that 
beauty which is truth. And congregations—to 
say nothing of ministers—will endeavour to 
learn, from the men who know, how much deeper 
worship may be when the hymns have the dignity 
of plain-song, the strength of old chorales, and 
the rich nobility of the psalm tunes our fathers 
loved. 

Well, these are practical matters, which young 
ministers must work out for themselves—with 
this comfort, that the reverent development of 
public worship is a man’s job. If any one can 
say that he has helped to make more worthy the 
services of the Sanctuary, he can say that he is 
one of the company of God’s workers, who have 
made two blades of grass appear where one grew 
before. The work demands patience, no doubt: 
but the result will crown the task. 


Vil, 


Sometimes an example is more helpful than 
many precepts. Wherefore, I venture to append 





THE ORDER OF WORSHIP = 53 


an order of service, with the details filled in, 
which is arranged upon the principles we have 
been considering. It is, you observe, of the 
simplest sort. We can, none of us, deny the 
beauty of more elaborate services: but, on the 
whole, we shall not err if we seek simplicity to 
a greater degree than is now common. For 
simplicity and nobility are born friends. In any 
case, simplicity is no foe of the psychological 
order, as you will see if you glance at the 
following. 


ORDER OF SERVICE. 


I. The Approach (or Preface) 


1. The Call MINISTER. O come let us wor- 
ship and bow down, let us 
kneel before the Lord our 
Maker: for He is our God. 


2. The Realization PEOPLE. Holy, holy, holy is 
the Lord of hosts, the whole 
earth is full of His giory: 


3. The Cry for Help MINISTER. Almighty God, un- 
to whom all hearts be open, all 
desires known, and from whom 
no secrets are hid: cleanse the 
thoughts of our hearts by the 
inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 
that we may perfectly love 
Thee, and worthly magnify Thy 
Holy Name; through Christ our 


Lord. Amen. 
II. The Worship Psalm. All people that on 
1, Vision earth do dwell. 
& Prayer of Confession, and for 


Humility Pardon and for Cleansing. 


o4 


PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


. Vision 


& 
Deepened Humility 


. Vision bringing 


The Law. Deut. 6:1-9. 


The Anthem. Incline Thine 
CBD. ots 
The Lesson. Romans 8:31-39. 


Vitality and Illumination Hymn of Thanksgiving, All 


& 


Hail the Power of 
Jesus’ name. . 


Thanksgiving, IntercessionPrayer of Thanksgiving, Inter- 
& 


Dedication 


. The Particular Vision 


& 
Iliumination 


. The Final Vision 


& 
Gift of God. 


cession and Lord’s Prayer. 
Offertory. 


MINISTER. Receive these sym- 
bols of Thy people’s labour, 
Lord, and be pleased to use alike 
them and us for the Kingdom 
of Thy Son, for His Name’s 
sake. (Announcements, if any.) 
Hymn, Oh Master let me walk 
with Thee. 


Sermon. Psalm 23:3. 

(Brief Prayer.) 

Hymn, The King of Love my 
Shepherd is. 

The Benediction. 


You see how that service swings in alternation, 


and how it ascends until at last we stand before 
the God who blesses us—the God of the Ever- 
lasting mercy, who calls us into communion with 
Himself, giving us that universal grace, which 
is His changeless gift to His children. If we 
and our people can reach thither for a moment, 
and find our hearts softened and comforted, we 
may know the labour of our worship has not been 
in vain in the Lord. 


i ee 


— 


oy eee 4 eh. 
5 Le eae 


<r 


a 


Pape ae 








CHAPTER II. 
PUBLIC PRAYER. 


O part of public worship is easy work for 

the minister; but the most testing of all 
is leadership in Rea For, then, he becomes 
the “‘man-in-men,” at once self-forgetful and 
self-mindful: forgetful of his mood, however 
dominating it may be; and mindful of his un- 
changing needs as a sinful man. In prayer, the 
congregation is at the human énd of the “swing” 
of worship. Prayer, in public worship, is the 
action of response to the Vision of God—and 
thus it displays man both at his puniest and his 
greatest. The whole of the ascending scale of 
religious reaction has to be expressed. No won- 
der that a man, who takes his work seriously, 
hesitates and is afraid before entering on such 
a task, and is thankful, if, without a too painful 
poverty of feeling and word, he comes to a con- 
clusion. And still less wonder that so large a 


section of the Church has turned to liturgy, 
55 


v<. PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 
hereby each minister becomes the mouthpiece of ; 
the devout mind of the whole Church. After 


. all, nothing can be better than the best; and if 
; men, who were greatly gifted in language and ~ 
+. ‘sensitive in heart, have left behind them the words _ 


in which they gave form to humanity’s religious 
need, why should not lesser men thankfully use _ 
them, and thus defend their congregations from 
the poor inadequacy of their own devotional 
speech and understanding? 

And yet no Reformed Liturgy is wholly satis- 
factory—not even the English Prayer Book, 
which is the common possession of us all and 
so peculiarly dear to those who have been brought 
up inits use. For, as we all know, its Morning 
Prayer (with which alone we are here concerned) 
is a combination of ancient offices, and the patch- 
work shows. It has its roots in the ordered ser- 
vices of the monasteries, and, therefore, assumes 
that the main worship-occasion of the day—the 
celebration of the Sacrament—is over or is still 
to come. And, apart from such considerations, | 
there are flaws in it, if we take as our test its 
psychological development. ‘The opening, for 
instance, is far too abrupt. We are not prepared 
to be flung so quickly into confession; and, to 





PUBLIC PRAYER Lianee 


my mind, absolution follows too easily and too 
quickly. While none of us can pay too much 
respect to this noble manual of devotion, we can 
still hold that the Universal Reformed Liturgy 
has not yet been discovered. There is work still 
to-be done. It would be a strange instance of 
Time’s revenges, if the descendants of the Puri- 
tan and the Covenanter should hand back to their 
brethren of the Anglican tradition a liturgy on 
which all could unite. Stranger things have hap- 
pened, if the interest displayed in America about 
orders of service contains within it anything of 
a prophecy. But one thing is sure—the ultimate 
liturgy will not be wholly liturgical; for no 
liturgy can be complete. Leading in prayer 1S 
unquestionably aided_by personality —as we we all 
shall a agree, who can remember occasions, when 
some true man of God raised the prayer-mood of 
@ congregation by his own close ¢ contact ‘with the 
Unseen. There must always be an opportunity 
for frée prayer, to be used by those who can use 
it: and the Churches of our lineage, in retaining 
the spontaneous expression of our common needs 
have been - retaining something of real _worship- 
Bane eo hi, 


But this only makes our mishandling of ex- 


58 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


tempore prayer the more distressing. Jor we 
have mishandled it dreadfully, and still do. Our 
lack of sequence, our neglect of necessary ele- 
ments, our startlingly unsuitable language are 
manifest on every hand. No doubt, they ae are, 1n 
Aa spring te om a a. thor oughly unreal depentenia 
upon the guidance of the Spirit, and from trom plain 
pee and lack of preparation. ion. As a 


— 


see i theological, prayers oratorical, prayers 
bright and brotherly, (as, “O Lord, give us 
pep” );—prayers of any and every sort, except 
devotional. “Paradoxical as it may appear unto 
Thee, O Lord,” is the alleged beginning of a 
prayer by an argumentative, metaphysical Scot. 
If anything does appear paradoxical to the per- 
fect Mind, it is the granting of the title “prayer” 
to some of the disquisitions which we submit in 
worship. It is no wonder at all that men sigh, 
not so much for for 1 the beauty, as for the safety 
of a liturgy. i erage 


“Seepsnciiaatneeecisnaisanteeaaneeeineeans. 


I, 


And yet the reasons for retaining free prayer 
are obvious and conclusive. Its proposed per- 





f 
ae 

ns 

f 

i 


PUBLIC PRAYER 59 


mission, in the present revision of the Prayer 
Book, shows that its desirability is apparent not 
only to Puritans: and the fact that our people 
hold to it so tenaciously indicates that they have 
found in it qualities of value. As we have already 
indicated, it affords opportunity for a sensitive 
mind to awaken the prayer-mood in other minds: 


and, even if a minister be a very ordinary per- 


op 


son, as is normally the case, yet his friendship for | 


his people and their friendship for him, will lend 


power to the inflection of his voice, and. to his 
turns of phrase, to create the devotional atmos- 
phere in which true prayer can speed upon its 
way. 

But, more generally, free prayer must con- 
tinue to be used because of its elasticity. It 
surely is not true that the language which is most 
helpful to one type of congregation is most help- 
ful to all types. In spiritual needs men may be 
much of muchness (“there is no difference” the 
Apostle emphatically declares); but intellec- 
tually there are clearly disparities. Language 
which is archaic has an added dignity to e ears 
attined to English; | but Me is only. unreal to sim- 
pler folk. And an elasticity, which will make 


the content of our intercessions native to our own 


i 


= alae ee oe 


60 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


time, is an unchallengeable good. The touch of 
conscious superiority, for instance, in a prayer for 
“Jews, Turks and Infidels” is not genuine from 
the lips of men of today. It is with quite a differ- 
ent accent that we can pray, sincerely, for the 
spreading of the kingdom. And inasmuch as 
all prayer must be free from the mere suspicion 
of unreality, stereotyped forms have to be con- 
tinually readjusted, especially in intercession. 
This leads, naturally, to one of the main de- 
fences of non-liturgical forms. We need elas- 
ticity in order that we may be particular. It is 
this want, doubtless, that has caused permission 
for free prayer to be suggested in the Prayer 
Book. Definiteness—particularity, if you prefer 
it—is desirable in confession, in supplication and, 
frequently, in thanksgiving: but it is the root of 
the matter in intercession. We must not forget 
to pray for “all sorts and conditions of men”; 
but we are not going to create a great eagerness 
of pleading in a congregation, unless we pray 


for the particular sort and condition which that 


congr egation has in its heart. Take the case of 
a fishing- village on a stormy ‘Sunday; or a min- 
ing-town, when there has been an accident; or 
an industrial centre, when there is a strike or a 





PUBLIC PRAYER 61 


lock-out,—it is inhuman not to pray specifically 
for those immediately affected. Those present 
are thinking of nothing else. They want to tell 
God all about it—and where are they to do that 
better than in His house? Even if the whole 
community is not affected, why should not indi- 
viduals in special need be given to feel that the 
Christian Body is praying with them? A mother 
has bad news from abroad: or her son is a sailor, 
and his ship is overdue: mental trouble has 
touched, maybe, her first-born. Her minister 
knows about it—why should he not have oppor- 
tunity to pray for those, in lands afar, whose 
names are graven on our hearts; or for those 
whose ways are in the great deep, that the seas 
may be still about them; or for any who have 
lost the kindly light of reason? A form of 
prayer, which makes such special intercession 
impossible, is sending the Church out, crippled, 
to one of its main tasks: and for that rea- 
son alone unrestricted prayer will be jealously 
guarded by Churches which have known its 
benefits. | 

One other reason for its retention may be al- 
leged. If (and much emphasis has to be placed 
on that word )—7f a minister takes his leadership 


62 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


in prayer with due seriousness, he has a new 
incentive and aid to ministerial effectiveness. 
For, if he is to be the mouthpiece of his people 
in prayer, he must meditate alone by himself; 
he must have the pastoral mind; he must dwell, 
not only with the language, but with the thoughts 
of devotion. His duties in prayer may be his 
own | chief education. It would not be a foolish 


contention that the best qualities of the Puritan 
minister have had their spring just here. 


II. 


If free prayer is to do what we claim for it, 
certain conditions have:to be observed. It must 
be prepared for—both directly and indirectly. 
We have to remember that worship is a task; 
and that the Holy Spirit inspires through 
thought. Moreover, preparation is demanded by 
the fact that, seeing that the minister is the 
mouthpiece of all the people, he has to express 
all the normal emotions that will touch them as 
the service proceeds. Not only so, but he must 
express them as they arise, and, therefore, he 
must never depart from the psychological order 
—invocation, confession, prayer for pardon, 





PUBLIC PRAYER 63 


prayer for aid, thanksgiving, intercession and 
dedication. He must set aside his own moods 
with a firm hand—particularly it if he bea man of a 
sorrowful spirit. He is not there to tell_ God, 
via the congregation, about his own_megrims. 
And;above all, he will remember that indirect 
preparation is more important than direct. To 
be equipped to lead in prayer any | Sunday i is a 
better thing: than to. "be prepared. with prayers for 
next ext Sunday. 

~~Students, and those who are young in the min- 
istry, may not be averse to a little practical 
advice as to the preparation and as to the act of 
leadership itself in the Sanctuary. It must, of 
course, be remembered that this, like preaching, 
is an individual thing, and that methods of prep- 
aration which are one man’s food may be another 
man’s poison. Some general rules, however, may 
be laid down; and for the rest, practices, which 
have been tried by one man and found helpful, 
are at least worth the consideration of those who 
come after him. 

(a) Public prayer Is the pastoral office at its 
height. "Therefore, a man must keep close to his 
people religiously. We shall be concerned later 
with pastoral work in relation to preaching; and 


64 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


for the moment it is enough to observe, that a 
man is only able to express people’s needs, so 
as to touch their hearts, if he knows them—and 
that not in the casual, social way, but, as a min- 
ister should know them, in their hidden needs. 
There are enormous practical difficulties, ob- 
structing the pastoral office, in modern condi- 
tions; but it is possible, gradually to get our 
people to visit us, if we have not time to go to 
them. If we succeed in developing a relation 
with our flock, in which they will naturally come 
to us, we may be sure that it is in their troubles 
that they will come; whereby we gain, slowly, 
that knowledge of the human heart, which is 
lacking i in those whose experience is inexperience, 
In his first charge, however, a minister ought to 
be able to visit his parish easily, and he should 
use his visits so that a religious contact will be 
established. ~ From the confidences so given, a 
man will learn that which will make living and 


actual, not only his intercessions, but all his ~ 


prayers—and, not least, his confessions. And, 


at all times, there is one object of pastoral care, 5 
whom he should not, and need not, forget—to — 
wit, himself. Let us take a good look at ourselves — 
in God’s presence, and we shall not lack some ' 





a 


ae a a 
nn * 


Ee eh ere 


See 


s 


PUBLIC PRAYER 65 


equipment for expressing the simple needs of our 
people. 

(b) Secondly, we should plan our week, set- 
ting apart particular days, or portions of days, 
for particular tasks; and, in that plan, keep one 
morning for the arrangement of our service and 
for indirect preparation for prayer. If we start 
that practice when we are young, and in our first 
charge, when we are old we shall not depart 
from it. 

Here let me pay a tribute to the memory of 
a great leader in prayer—the greatest I have 
ever known, who taught me long ago the rudi- 
ments of worship, not only by precept but by 
the wonder of his example—I mean the late Dr. 
Oswald Dykes. His power of raising the devo- 
tional tone of a service was unrivaled in my ex- 
perience. He frequently read his prayers; but 
when he did not, his mind seemed such a store- 
house of knowledge of the human heart and of 
language in which to convey it, that to be led 
in prayer by him was an experience not to be 
forgotten. Dr. Marcus Dodds—a man _ not 
given, one would think, to outbursts of enthu- 
siasm—is alleged to have said that he had heard 
better preachers than Dr. Dykes, but that he 


66 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


would go across London to hear him pray. Un- 
less students have changed since my time, they 
agree with the Psalmist that “it is vain to rise up 
early”; and with Mr. Gladstone that “getting up 
in the morning is the most disagreeable dut duty of 
the day.’ ” “But, when I was at my theological 
college (although I was, and am, in whole- 
hearted agreement with Mr. Gladstone), I, in 
common with all the rest, rose with alacrity to 
be at early chapel, when Dr. Dykes was to take 
it. A man, surely, had remarkable powers who 
affected people so different as Dr. Dodds and 
us young men. 

And how did he gain them? Well, he told me 
himself: by sheer, hard toil. One morning a week 
(Thursday, I think) was ‘rigidly set apart for 
the p preparation of prayers. Sometimes, he would 
make as many as forty attempts to get the pre- 
cise thought and rhythm which he wanted for 
the prayer of Invocation. And, for the rest, he 
read, and went on reading, all the manuals of 
devotion of all the Church, until he walked in 
equal company with the great leaders in prayer 
of long ago. 

That is, it is clear, a severe programme: and 
we shall not adopt it, unless we are eager to be 





PUBLIC PRAYER 67 


truly effective in this department of our work. 
Few of us have had sufficient character to stick 
to it completely.. But it is the right example. 
We should have on our desks the Prayer Book; 
every worthy modern service book we can find; 
the Preces Privatae of Bishop Lancelot Andrews 
should be within reach (“Lancelot Andrews, 
who taught most of us to pray,” as Dr. Alex- 
ander Whyte used to say); and, above all, we 
should read, meditatively, over and over, the 
Psalms and the Prophets in King James’ Ver- 
sion, so that devotional thought and devotional 
language will become part of the permanent 
furniture of our minds. 

(c) We should commit to memory—especially 
collects and special prayers from “the Prayer 
Book and large portions of the devotional pas- 
sages of the Bible. Not, indeed, to be able to 
quote them, for the spatch-cocking of learnt 
prayers or verses into our own free prayer 
usually gives an impression of disjointedness: but 
in order that our own language may be insensibly 
fashioned thereby. 

(d) As we read and commit to memory, we 
should attune our ears to ) rhythm. For it is only 
through . rhythmical language that the nobler 


68 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


ideas can be hinted. “Language is given us” as 
the French cynically say, “to conceal our 
thought”—and even if that is not true, the kind 
of idea with which we are concerned in prayer 
easily breaks through our poor language and 
escapes. But, by means of rhythm, we can sug- 
gest to the mind something of the greatness 
which lies beyond our thought. To say “God is 
great” is to say something true: but the expres- 
sion lies on the surface of the mind. It touches 
no deep spring of feeling. But if a man speaks 
of God as “Thou who coverest Thyself with light 
as with a garment,” or as One “whose dwelling 
is the light of setting suns’; or who “inhabiteth 
eternity, whose Name is holy,” the “beat” of 
such phrases, as well as their imagery, helps to 
express something of the sense of the Divine 
Majesty. And it is only by study and by storing 
the memory, that a man will naturally fall into 
the right kind of rhythm of the right kind of 
words, when he leads his people in prayer. 

(e) During the first five years, at least, of his 
ministry, &@ man should write out his prayers. 
Whether he reads them or not in the pulpit is his 
concern: but he assuredly should write until he 
has at his disposal a set for every Sunday in the 





PUBLIC PRAYER 69 


year, both morning and evening—a hundred and 
four sets in all. Even if he never uses them, the 
effect on his powers of extempore expression will 
be admirable. And, always, however long his 
experience may be, he should know by heart_his 
prayer of Invocation—and have said it over and 
over before he goes into the pulpit: for so much 
depends on the reverence and the rightness of 
the opening. 


III. 


In conclusion, let a few general counsels be 
added. 

(a) Take your people into your confidence 
about out your order of service in general, and the 
sequence of the prayers in particular. Explain 
it to them from time to time. Let them know 
precisely what you are trying to do on their be- 
half. Only so, will they be able to follow in- 


telligently. 
(b) Announce, in suitable language, each 
ro ee 
main division of prayer—as thus:—“let us con- 


fess our sins unto Almighty God”; “let us be- 
seech God for His pardon and cleansing”’’; “let 
us give thanks unto our Lord, who is good, whose 
mercy endureth forever.” These, and _ like 


70 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


phrases, recall the attention of the congregation 
and concentrate it on the next effort. Before 
each of these announcements, and after them, let 
there be a sight pause—not too long, but quite 
perceptible. Occasional, brief stillnesses are 
markedly helpful to attention. 

(c) Let the prayers be many and short, rather 
than few and Jong. The power of mental ean 
centration in a congregation is limited—and a 
minister should not overstrain it. This is a mat- 
ter particularly to be watched in the Intercessory 
Prayer, which is of necessity the longest, espe- 
cially if it follows immediately after the prayer 
of thanksgiving. Break it up into related sec- 
tions, e.g. the nation, the Church, the sorrowful, 
etc.: and pause slightly between the sections. 
Often use a form akin to that of a “bidding” 
prayer, in which little more is done than to recite 
a list of the classes for which we pray: and, again, 
have little pauses after each class is mentioned. 
Too steady a flow of speech in prayer can become 
dreadfully. monotonous, and makes attention dif- 
ficult. We can avoid that unfortunate result, by 
cultivating the little pauses. But they must not 
be exaggerated. There is only a certain amount 
of silence that worshippers can stand. Quite 





PUBLIC PRAYER 71 


soon, it gets on people’s nerves. Wherefore, if 
we use silence, we must be careful not to overdo 
it. Too much is worse than too little. 

(d) Keep the voice as low as is consistent with 
being heard. All harshness and “edge” to the 
tone should be removed, as well as all uncon- 
trolled shoutings. It is notin the least edifying 
to hear a man screaming at his Maker, in a kind 
of eldritch shriek, to “hear these our humble 





breathings.” Avoid any appearance of orating: 
and, to this end, be very careful about both 
adverbs and adjectives. The best rule is to cut 
them both out, unless we are compelled (as when 
naming God, or describing His action) to put 
them in. A study of the collects in the Prayer 
Book will prove, perhaps to our surprise, how 
very economical they are in their use of these 
descriptive parts of speech. 

(e) And, finally, while it is true that in prayer 
we are at the human end of the worship-swing, 
let us remember that in prayer we are addressing 
) God. “Tt is quite wonderful how the memory 
_ of that plain fact helps us to reach after thought 
which shall be sincere and language which shall 
be noble. If, along such lines as these, we do 


72 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


our best to cultivate our faculties, we may be sur- 
prised to find how content our people are, to be 
led in prayer after the simple fashion of our 
fathers, 





CHAPTER IIL 
THE SPOKEN WORD. 


IRST of all, I want to ask a plain question, 

to which I should like (Lut shall not get) a 
plain answer. Do you, in your heart of hearts, 
done every week, and nothing particular seems 
to happen to the world as a result. It is not in 
the least unreasonable to enquire, if, conse- 
quently, you really think that there is very much 
in it; or whether you do not believe that the 
honest men, who toil in its preparation and per- 
spire in its delivery, would not be more fruitfully 
occupied in some other way. 

Quite a lot of people, nowadays, would unite 
in disparagement. “Is he a good preacher?’ a 
Scottish professor was asked. “Admirable,” was 
the reply: “he does remarkably little harm.” 
“Am Ia D.D.?” indignantly queried an Ameri- 
ean scholar. “No, sir: I am not. Why, they 


give the wretched degree for preaching.” High 
73 


74 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


Churchmen are often frankly scornful: though 
not quite as scornful as certain high-brow stu- 
dents of my acquaintance in the old days, who 
regarded a popular preacher as almost certainly 
a charlatan. If preaching was to be permitted, 
their ideal setting for it was a dirty church in 
a back street, where a long-haired scholar dis- 
coursed on the Hexateuch to the intellectually 
elect. So, I quite seriously want to know—do 
you young ministers or students, who may read 
this, believe in the importance and the power of 
the spoken word? For my own part, I do so 
believe: and for the belief I see reasons and 
reasons, 

(a) In the first place, it was the chief task of 
our Lord. It was His own way of advancing 
“the kingdom. ‘He departed thence to teach and 
to preach in their cities,” we read. And what was 
good enough for Him is surely good enough 
for us. 

(b) Further, great periods in the history of 
the Church have been marked by great preach- 
ing. After Christianity had laid hold on the 
Empire under Constantine, and the Church be- 
gan to spread widely, both Kast and West flung 
up men whose names as preachers stand high 





THE SPOKEN WORD 75 


in the roll of fame; for, in the East, Chrysostom 
appeared and, in the West, Augustine. So 
much, indeed, was preaching an agency for the 
spread of Christianity, that Julian the Apostate 
(when, after Constantine, he attempted to re- 
store the pagan culture) organized preachers to 
commend the old faith. An imitation of that 
kind is not only the sincerest form of flattery, 
but a proof of the power of the method imitated. 
In the thirteenth century, after an arid period 
in the Church’s life, when Christian Kurope felt 
the sudden shock of the mighty personalities of 
St. Dominic and St. Francis, and when learning 
reawakened and, afar off, there might be heard 
the beginning of the stirring notes of the Refor- 
mation, it was by preaching that the Dominicans 
and the Franciscans—but particularly the for- 
mer—carried their new energy amongst the 
people. So great was the reputation of the 
Dominican as a preacher, that it persists to this 
day. I have seen an Italian village church, 
amongst the hills, crammed to the doors on a 
lovely spring afternoon to hear a Dominican 
friar. And when the Reformation’ burst, in all 
its storm and majesty, upon Europe, once more 
preaching came into its own. Luther, Zwinglhi, 


76 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


Calvin, Knox—these, indeed, were names to 
conjure with in pulpits, as in the council-rooms 
of kings. In England, when the commonwealth 
was divided by convictions, partly religious and 
partly political, so real that men were prepared 
to die for them, both the Cavaliers and the Puri- 
tans produced a race of preachers stronger, some 
would say, than any who have succeeded them. 
On the one hand, Hooker, Donne, Thomas 
Fuller and Jeremy Taylor: on the other, Cart- 
wright, Richard Baxter, John Owen, John Bun- 
yan, Thomas Goodwin—these formed a galaxy 
of power that is still our pride. Even a civiliza- 
tion such as that of Louis XIV, because it was 
a great civilization tinctured with Christianity, 
produced pulpit artists. Bossuet, Bourdaloue, 
Massillon and Feénélon attested at least the 
culture of that notable time. And, nearer our 
own day, when the mind of Scotland was flung 
into a ferment by the controversy that issued in 
the Disruption, and the Church was a living 
thing in men’s thoughts, the leaders were preach- 
ers also. Chalmers and Candlish themselves 
would have said that the pulpit, rather than the 
Assembly platform, was their throne. When, in 
the brilliant, dead eighteenth century, the flame 








THE SPOKEN WORD 77 


of religion in England was kept alive by Meth- 
odism, it was as a preacher that John Wesley 
went forth; and when, in the nineteenth century, 
there arose in the Church of England the move- 
ment toward Catholic practice which breeds such 
fruit today, it was the compelling voice of New- 
man in St. Mary’s, Oxford, that gave it its 
impetus and direction. And who has ever heard 
of a revival that had no preaching-man in its 
centre? Your revival assumes your Moody. 
_ But we need not go so far afield for our evidence. 
The ordinary well-filled church in Britain, or 
Canada, or the States, has a man in its pulpit, 
who can preach decently. “A house-going min- 
istry makes a church-going people,” is one of 
_ those statements which have the colour of truth 
_ without the reality of it. If it means that you 
must know your people and preach to h to them,” , well 
and good. But if it means that you can chatter 
inanities from the ] pulpit, and stillhave your 
church full, provided you have knocked at_a 
sufficient number of doors during the week, it i is 

lain nonsense. Your ‘people prefer to have 
your bést out of your head rather than out of 
your heels. On the whole, we may agree that 
history and present experience alike are against 


78 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


the superior modern who sneers at the spoken 
word, 

But I do not suppose that it is necessary to 
labour this point to the majority of those who 
may read this. We are already convinced, by 
that potent argument, personal experience. We 
know for ourselves the effect’ of “truth strained 
through a human personality,” as a sermon may 
well be defined. For myself; I have been at great 
festivals of the Church in some of the stateliest 
fanes of Christendom—and they remain vague, 
if noble, memories. But, sharp and clear-cut 
in the storehouse of the mind, stand one or two 
occasions, when men, who for themselves had 
tasted and seen how gracious the Lord is, spoke 
of the love that had set them free. No one, who 
can remember any such occasion, can doubt’ the 
possibilities of the preacher, Wherefore, let all 
ministers of our branches of the ‘Church, hold to 
the old view, that this is their main job. To it 
they must give their steady application, refusing 
to be drawn aside by the multifarious, busy-idle 
distractions of this fussy age. A writer in an 
English paper, not long ago, wrote this comment 





on a promising divine:—“Mr. 
on the sunny side of forty, and if he resists the 


is still well — 








THE SPOKEN WORD 79 


temptation to let himself be melted down for 
the tallow trade, in a day of movements and 
causes, he will make a distinctive contribution 
to the religious life of his generation.” An ad- 
mirable hint, this, for the young. Conference-itis 
is a devastating fever. It melts down for the 
tallow trade those that should be letting their 
light shine in that little corner, which is their 
own pulpit. The weekly instruction, as good as 
- we can make it, is the proud tradition and con- 
— tribution of our Church. Let us see to it that 
- we give the best we have. 


I. 


At any rate, we are agreed that preaching is 
_ sufficiently important for us to enquire somewhat 
about it. And, first, let us be clear as to its 
object. What does preaching propose to do? 

The answer is two-fold. Preaching intends, 
_ (1) to glorify God, and (2) to help men to be 
good. The latter of these is the emmediate, and 
the former the final, object of the spoken word. 
_ Thus, preaching allies itself both with the Vision 
and with the Responsive Need, which we noticed 
_to be inevitably linked in worship. It is intended 


80 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


to give Illumination which shall bring Vitality— 
to use technical language. In setting forth the 
facts of God, it glorifies Him; in relating them 
to mankind, it provides help for the needy. 
Never let us forget this double significance of 
our pulpit work: and always let them be ex- 
pressed in terms as direct as these. Matters of 
importance can usually be put in simple lan- 
guage. Certainly, this matter can. We prepare 
in our studies, and we speak in our pulpits, in 
order to show forth the glory of our Maker and 
thus to help men, ourselves especially, to be good. 
If we keep the former of these objects before us, 
we go far to solving some of our problems; as 
for instance, the problem of the permissible range 


of subjects for preaching. We are put in pulpits | 


in order to glorify God: which, at any rate, keeps 
certain types of absurdity and indecency out of 
our churches. 


II. 


The immediate object of preaching is secured 
in one of two ways, or by a blending of the two. 

(a) By a presentation of truth. A text which 
ought to be emblazoned in every minister’s study 
is “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall 





THE SPOKEN WORD 81 


make you free.” ‘To make our faith credible: 
to convince the minds of our hearers that God 
and sin and love and the indwelling spirit are 
facts—here is the dignified enterprise on which 
we may embark Sunday by Sunday, knowing 
that, if we can succeed, the immediate object of 
preaching has been achieved. Once a man is con- 
vinced of a truth he is strengthened with might. 
And have we not sadly to admit that our modern 
_ preaching is weak here, compared with the stand- 
ards of former days? No doubt, we have a 
harder task than our fathers, who could clinch 
a doubtful argument with a “proof-text.” No 
_ doubt, knowledge has grown from more to more, 
_ and the modern, intelligent congregation cannot 
_ be put off with half-reasoning. But have we not 
_ shrunk from our task because it is hard, instead 
_ of regarding its difficulty as a challenge? ‘The 
_ fact remains that the condition of sustained, 
_ effective preaching is wide knowledge and good, 
hard thinking: and that young ministers must 
scorn the sophistry that tells them that their 
congregations will not listen to theological ser- 
mons. The truth is the exact opposite—they 
will not listen long to anything else. Of course, 
_ the language must not be the technical language 


82 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


of the class-rooms of a by-gone age: but theology 
expressed in comprehensible speech is essential. 
After all, what is theology but considered com- 
monsense applied to the meaning of life and the 
relations of God and man? Let us pay our 
congregations the very sight compliment of be- 
lieving them to be rational beings who want to 
know, and who hold that “thought is the citadel.” 
Unless we stiffen our preaching, and replace the 
iron of argument in it, the Reformed Church 
will die of pernicious anemia, 

(b) Secondly, the immediate object of preach- 
ing is achieved by awaking the emotions. ‘This 
sounds the simpler method, and most men try it. 
Congregations are curiously sentimental; and 
sometimes seem to like to have their emotions 
stirred by fat fingers. The audiences that are 
attracted by praters, who pull out the vow 
humana stop at the beginning and keep it on all 
the time, are depressingly large. “Sob-stuff”’ 
is almost a synonym for much preaching today. 
But the degradation of emotive pulpit work 
must not blind us to its possible splendour. For 
preaching of this sort, at its height, is poetry. 
Here, preaching becomes an art, fit to rank with 
the noblest arts of them all. Imagination and 








THE SPOKEN WORD 83 


| feeling have to be blended with the glory of words 
| in a delicate and sensitive mind. Nor is thought 
| to be neglected; poems are thought transfused 
| with feeling and conveyed through images por- 
| trayed rhythmically. He that proposes to preach 
_ in this way is set on a road that seeks the hill-tops. 

A curious change is to be observed in this type 
of work in recent times. A generation ago, a 
| sermon, designed to appeal to the emotions, 
_ would, three times out of four, have appealed to 
| the emotion of fear: whereas, nowadays, you will 
search far before you find a minister using the 
“hangman’s whip.” “Hold them over the pit,” 
| is advice which, today, only brings a smile. Do 
you think that it is a justified smile? Do you 
find life so bereft of the stern and the tragic, 
| that we can afford not to be frightened? Does 
_ God, in His strong mercy, never scare us? We 
_ shall do well to remember that He, at least, plays 
_ upon the whole of the ascending emotive scale 
_ of fear, awe, Joy and love: and that preachers 
are not loyal to all they should have learned in 
| experience, if they are never afraid themselves, 
and, consequently, compelled to communicate 
their fear to their hearers. However, it is doubt- 
less best to touch mostly upon the strings at the 


84 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


upper end of the emotive scale, remembering “the 
expulsive power of a new affection”; and know- 
ing that, though reason may fail to change a man, 
if you “touch the lever of his affections, you move 
his world.” 


Il, 


Before we proceed to practical advice upon 
the preparation of sermons, one further general 
consideration should be mentioned, which is of 
real importance in these days—namely, that, if 
preaching is to secure its immediate object of 
helping men to be good, the preacher must bear 
in mind that each man is an individual: to the in- 
dividual the appeal must be made. ° 

Now, this is fundamental, and requires to be 
said. Our subject may be the kingdom, and the 
general welfare of humanity: but our immediate 
object is to help, not humanity, but Brown, Jones 
and Robinson, sitting there in the pews in front 
of us, to be good. And these persons are in- 
tensely individual—solitary and separate. In 
the deepest of senses it is true that we mortal 
millions live alone; that “we stand upon isles, 
who stand.” Indeed, we are strangers, not only 
to one another, but to ourselves. It is this that 


THE SPOKEN WORD 85 


makes life so hard—that we walk as pilgrims 
chained to a self that is the unknown, and seems 
the unknowable. No man hath seen himself, 
at any time. “Know thyself” counseled the wise 
Greek. If only we could! But God has placed 
a boundary to our knowledge of ourselves, say- 
ing, thus far and no farther. Francis Thompson 
has given vivid expression to this inaccessibility 
| of the soul in his poem “The Fallen Yew.” He 
| imagines a wife calling to her mate on her mar- 
riage-day, “I take you to my inmost heart, my 
| true’; and then turns on her with the savage 
declaration that she does not possess the keys to 
the citadel of her personality and cannot yield 
_ them to any lover. 





“Ah, fool, but there is one heart you 
Shall never take him to. 


“The hold that falls not when the town is got, 
The heart’s heart, whose immured plot 
Hath keys yourself keep not! 


“Its gates are deaf to Love, high summoner; 
Yea, Love’s great warrant runs not there; 
You are your prisoner. 


“Its keys are at the cincture hung of God.” 


When we are forced back on ourselves, the 
stark truth of a poem such as this bludgeons the 


86 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


mind. We dwell in mystery—the mystery of 
vastness, the mystery of Whither and of Whence. 
But we do not need to go to the ends of the earth 
to find the incomprehensible. Ourselves are 
mystery. The most untravelled country of all is 
the secret country of our own hearts. 

What, then, about preaching and the preacher? 
His task is to appeal to the individual—to the 
Ever-hidden—in such a way that the spiritual 
levers of action may be touched—levers which 
are locked in the citadel. How can he set about 
a business such as that? Not at all, save he re- 
member that the keys of the heart’s heart “are 
at the cincture hung of God.” It is only by let- 
ting loose divine forces that preaching can do its 
work—a reflection, surely, which gives a final 
dignity and solemnity to our duties. A preacher, 
in the end, is only a tool in a mightier Hand— 
or, at best, only the humble agent through which 
the transforming energy may flash, or by whom 
it may be set free. Let us never forget that, as 
we preach, we are dealing with forces over which 
we have no control, and that it is possible—let 
us be still and afraid before the possibility—to 
let them loose wrongly. The preacher who, for 
instance, carelessly plays upon the emotion of 


— 





) 


| 








THE SPOKEN WORD 87 


fear, is a man who may have to answer terrible 
questions some day. A boy with a match in a 
powder magazine is wisdom and safety compared 
with him. I am not likely to forget the strained, 
scared eyes I once saw in a girl’s pale face one 
Sunday night, when, before a massed congrega- 
tion, a minister was using all his powers of voice 
and language and magnetism to frighten the 
people: and, in so doing, was uttering falsehoods 
about God and His dealings with men. I can feel 
the tenseness of the hushed church, while the 
wonderful voice from the pulpit, stilled to a 
whisper, declared that not to have felt the love of 
God was to be lost. Sheer falsehood; for feeling 
is a reward, and many a time waits upon death 
before it comes. But there was no question but 
that power was let loose that night, and that one 
poor girl was being scared away from her 
Heavenly Father. And what was wrong with 
that minister was that he was obviously not pre- 
pared. Such instances, we shall hope, are not 
common. But the fact that, when we preach, we 


_ are in touch with powers unseen is enough to 


make us take this matter seriously. For, while 
we have to avoid letting loose these energies 
wrongly, our main purpose is to let them loose 


88 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


rightly. “Christianity is a power, or it is noth- 
ing,” and its preaching must unchain power or 
it is not preaching. ‘The most severe criticism 
I have heard of our pulpit work today was given 
not long ago by a lady. “It’s nearly all a knot- 
less thread,” she said. No grip, no catching- 
point init. Much of it is clever; some of it—too 
much perhaps—is entertaining; a little of it is 
brilliant. But it can be all these and remain a 
knotless thread—a thing that slips through the 
mind, pleasantly it may be, like the sound of a 
very lovely voice, but ineffectively, leaving no 
trace. Let us watch our lists of young communi- 
cants, and of those who come to us in trouble, 
to see if our preaching is fastening and holding 
anywhere. For all our work is useless unless it 
grips—and in gripping, heals and strengthens 
the separate hearts and wills of those who hear us. 


IV. 


Of course, this emphasis upon the individual 
does not prevent us from preaching about the 
kingdom, but quite the contrary. For the indi- 
vidual will not reach his perfection apart from 
the whole. Readers of Dante (and all ministers 





THE SPOKEN WORD 89 


and students should be that) will remember the 
lovely image of the perfected community which 
he portrays in the Rosa mystica—the white Rose 
of Paradise. There each petal is a separate soul, 
come to its full stature, and fair as only the petals 
of arose can be. But, clearly, each possesses and 
retains all the rest, in the living flower. “They 
without us cannot be made perfect” is at once 
comforting and inspiring. 

At the same time, let us never forget that, 
when we preach about communal good, it is to 
individuals that we are speaking. Jesus, it is 
true, came preaching the kingdom: but He chose 
twelve very individual individuals to whom He 
especially declared it. His point of attack was 
the individual conscience. So we, when we 
preach on social duties, must not vaguely shoot 
our arrows into the air, but must have the specific 
members of our congregation as our targets. If 
we do that, we are likely to be more effective for 
the cause we have at heart. Moreover, we shall 
do well to keep in mind the old, old wisdom that 
the changed society will come through changed 
men and women. ‘The declaration of social 
righteousness is undoubtedly a duty of the Chris- 
tian pulpit, but it is neither the whole, nor the 


909 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


chief, duty. In any case, we have all to be as 
sure as we can that the social schemes we pro- 
pound are both righteous and reasonable. Be- 
fore we talk too largely and emphatically about 
social reconstruction, it is not unseemly to have 
a knowledge of economics—a singularly re- 
condite and difficult subject. Inasmuch as 
hardly any of us possess the requisite knowledge, 
it behooves us to speak with due modesty and 
restraint. Meantime, we have the fundamental 
religious principles of the Bible to declare; we 
have Christ Himself to proclaim; and we need 
not have any fear that men who take discipleship 
to Him seriously will rest content with a system 
which inflicts unnecessary injury or injustice on 
the least of these His brethren. And, if ever we 
feel that we are beating the air, and that all 
our toil is futile, let us call to mind that, in all 
this business we are “labourers together with 
God.” It is rather wonderful work about which 
a thing like that can be said. 











CHAPTER IV. 
THE PREPARATION OF A SERMON. 


FFTS chapter is purely practical, and con- 
usts mainly of that which is alleged to be 

the culy commodity that a Scot will give away 
freely—to wit, advice. The reason (so our low- 


ae nr nr ni Oe eg 


minded critics maintain) that men of my 1 race 


cat ie RSPEI A A BOP te ee 


are so generous with advice | is ‘that. it is never 


im a ae Ee oe nee re mente ab arena ees 


taken. I can well imagine that that fate will 
befall many of the suggestions that follow. After 
all, if there are nine and sixty ways of inditing 
tribal lays, and if every single one of them is 
right, there are many more ways than that of 
composing a sermon, and each is right, if it is the 
best way for the man who adopts it. There is, 
surel, no art so individual as the art of preach- 
ing: and none, therefore, upon which it is more 
difficult to give counsel. I remember being 
taught te swim by a Spartan father. His 
methods were simple, if drastic. He dropped me 


into the ('yde and left me to it. Possibly, we 
91 


92 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


might not depart far from wisdom, if we took the 
same attitude to the novice in the pulpit. Ha- 
perientia docet in preaching as in other things; 
and as for the construction of a sermon, solvitur 
ambulando is an applicable Latin tag. 

However, a man does not quickly find his own 
method unless he has considered the devices of 
other men, even if only to reject them. So it may 
not be altogether a wasted effort if we spend a 
little time on suggestions for pulpit preparation. 

Now, this subject (like Gaul or a sermon) 
divides itself into three parts—indirect, semi- 
direct and direct preparation. And these de- 
scend in importance. Indirect preparation is 
more important than direct in any walk of life. 
A young doctor’s general medical equipment 
means more to him than his reading of the treat- 
ment of measles, directly before he visits his first 
sick baby. Similarly, the remote preparation 
that makes a preacher is more vital than the direct 
preparation which produces a sermon. Where- 
fore, let us begin with these general considera- 
tions, which apply to all pulpit work. 








PREPARATION OF A SER yor 99 


I. 


(a) Preaching consists in speaking: and, there- 
fore, learn to speak. 

And, here, a word of comfort to the timorous 
may confidently be given. The art of reasonably 
coherent and audible public speech may be ac- 
quired by anybody, who has a voice, some self- 
contro] and an average intelligence. Oratory, 
of course, is another matter. Orators and poets 
(for they are first cousins) are born, not made. 
The mistake preachers sometimes make is to at- 
tempt to | to be orators, when Nature intended them 
to be speakers only. The orator appears seldom, 
either in the pulpit or on the platform; but the 
speaker, being a man who can sustain dignified 
conversation with a thousand people as easily as 
with ten, is as common as the average man—if 
he would only believe it. There is no reason 
whatever, why the vast majority of us should not 
be able coherently to address any audience on 
any ordinary occasion, if we are prepared to take 
a little trouble at the beginning. Of course, we 
shall sometimes make fools of ourselves; but these 
tribulations are only the stepping-stones by 


92 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


might not depart far from wisdom, if we took the 
same attitude to the novice in the pulpit. Ha- 
perientia docet in preaching as in other things; 
and as for the construction of a sermon, solvitur 
ambulando is an applicable Latin tag. 

However, a man does not quickly find his own 
method unless he has considered the devices of 
other men, even if only to reject them. So it may 
not be altogether a wasted effort if we spend a 
little time on suggestions for pulpit preparation. 

Now, this subject (like Gaul or a sermon) 
divides itself into three parts—indirect, semi- 
direct and direct preparation. And these de- 
scend in importance. Indirect preparation 1s 
more umportant than direct in any walk of life. 
A _young doctor’s general medical equipment 
means more to him than his reading of the treat- 
merit of measles, directly before he visits his first © 
sick baby, Similarly, the remote preparation 
that makes a preacher is more vital than the direct 
preparation which produces a sermon. Where- 
fore, let us begin with these general considera- 
tions, which apply to all pulpit work. 











PREPARATION OF A SER 


I. 


(a) Preaching consists in speaking: and, there- 
fore, learn to speak. 

And, here, a word of comfort to the timorous 
may confidently be given. The art of reasonably 
coherent and audible public speech may be ac- 
quired by anybody, who has a voice, some self- 
control and an average intelligence. Oratory, 
of course, is another matter. Orators and poets 
(for they are first cousins) are born, not made. 
The mistake preachers sometimes make is to at- 
tempt to be orators, when Nature intended them 
to be speakers. only. The orator appears seldom, 
either in the pulpit or on the platform; but the 
speaker, being a man who can sustain dignified 
conversation with a thousand people as easily as 
with ten, is as common as the average man—if 
he would only believe it. There is no reason 
whatever, why the vast majority of us should not 
be able coherently to address any audience on 
any ordinary occasion, if we are prepared to take 
a little trouble at the beginning. Of course, we 
shall sometimes make fools of ourselves; but these 
tribulations are only the stepping-stones by 


3LIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


yaicit We rise from our stammering selves to the 
higher things of ease and fluency. The late Lord 
Morley was, I believe, a failure when he first 
addressed, the House of Commons. As he stood 
there, nervous and hesitating and almost in- 
audible, trying to reproduce a carefully prepared 
essay, his audience imagined him to be yet 
another instance of those distinguished literary 
men who are failures in Parliament. But he de- 
termined to gain self-control and the art of 
thinking on his feet; with the result that some 
years later I heard him gain such a triumph over 
a huge, hostile audience, as is seldom given to any 
man to win. What he did, we, in lesser degree, 
can do. There is no reason at all why most of 
us should not be quite reasonably good speakers. 
It is the simplest of all the arts. 


But, naturally, skill in this region has to be — 


sought and cultivated. Practice alone will make 
perfect. The theological student, therefore, has 
to use all the opportunities, which offer them- 
selves, to speak with a view to learning to speak. 
It is to provide just such opportunities that col- 
lege debating clubs exist. Of all the ways in 
which students waste their time, attendance at 
college societies is undoubtedly the most useful. 








PREPARATION OF A SERMUb. 


For there a man can find out the method of 
preparation that is most suitable for himself; he 
can get rid of self-consciousness; and he can dis- 
cover that, if he knows anything at all, the 
impromptu utterance of itis quite easy. In order 
that they may serve these purposes, student 
societies should discuss questions which call for 
the quick play of repartee and wit, of verbal 
thrust and counter-thrust, rather than those for 
which men prepare by reading solemn articles in 
an Encyclopedia. I believe that the habit of 
having oratorical teams which compete for ora- 
torical championships before judges of oratory 
is wholly vicious, and is producing a generation 
of sententious purveyors of verbiage. What a 
man has to learn is how to clothe his ideas in 
suitable words on the spur of the moment; how 
to be natural and moderately confident on his 
feet, so that his gifts of spontaneity may not be 
sterilized by nervousness. He learns this by 
_ debating: and debating is best encouraged by the 
choice of subjects which are not dealt with in 
learned tomes. The ideal motion for a col- 
lege discussion was invented, I believe, by the 
late J. K. Stephen:—“that this house is of the 
opinion that the difference between a difference 


sUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


in kind and a difference in degree is a difference 
in degree and not a difference in kind.” You 
cannot stew up facts from bluebooks on a sub- 
ject like that, nor does its treatment tend to 
develop the sesquipedalian style that these ora- 
torical contests seem to encourage. 

In addition to college clubs, a student has at 
his disposal another excellent training-ground— 
to wit, the open air. In recent years, under- 
graduates in Britain have taken to visiting in- 
dustrial centres during their vacations, with a 
view to speaking on Christian topics at street 
corners and in public parks. An admirable — 
scheme! If these students do not convince their — 
immediate hearers, they are unconsciously pre- : 
paring to become much more convincing in their 
pulpits later on. The open air (if it does not 


over-strain the vocal chords) teaches a man to — 


keep his voice up, so as to reach the man on the 
edge of the crowd; it exposes him to interrup- 


tions, and so compels him to think as he stands; — 
and it forces him not to be dull, or his audience , 


will silently vanish away. Many of the most — 
effective preachers of to-day learned their art — 
in the open air: and we are foolish if we do not ~ 





PREPARATION OF A SERMO.. 


take advantage of so valuable, if so Spartan, a 
school. 

(b) Preaching consists not only in speaking, 
but in speaking sense; and that depends on 
knowledge and “the full mind,” which in their 
turn depend on reading. Wherefore, take time 
to read. i 

Now, this has been repeated to theological 
students ad nauseam: and, anyhow, it is so 
obvious. What is worse, it is so nearly impossible 
to follow. The modern minister is SUS os reincar- 


Ne Ente ee 


aaa 


and, while he is Lae here and there, the time for 
his books has gone. But is it not possible to hope 
that the generation of ministers that is now 
appearing will be strong enough to tell their 
people that nothing | short of battle, murder or 


pera AAA AO AE. sty Sein a 


sudden death will t: take them out of their studies 
before lunch? My experience has been that when 
- you go to your office-bearers and take them into 
your confidence about your work, they, being 
reasonable citizens, will help you to secure all 
the quiet that is necessary. And as to all the 
— conferences, reunions and general qu quasi-religious 
_ jamborees, it is always possible to stay away. 


It is, at any rate, certain that either you are going 





PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


to find time to read, or one of two things is going 
to happen—you are going to repeat yourself so 
much that even the long-suffering patience of the 
average audience will give way, or you will 
change a few adjectives in other men’s sermons 
and preach them as your own. “Convey” the 
wise call it; but the plain English for plagiarism 
is theft. ) 

But, even at the worst, we have time to our- 
selves. And let a plea be put in for the use of 
some of it to keep ourselves familiar with the 
FEinglish classics and, particularly, with the poets. 
Our reading should not be solely in regions tech- 
nically theological. Certainly, it should not be 
directed mainly to next Sunday’s work. The 
reading that creates the full mind is a communing 
with the great brooders on life, who invite us 
into their company by the written word, and 
by their society and intimacy lead us into new 
lands with wider horizons. Happy men are we, 
truly, whose work calls us into the comradeship 
of the great: but foolish, thrice foolish, if, by 
reason of the fussiness of our time, we neglect 
their friendship and their wisdom. At least, we 
can promise to read, let us say, Keats, before we 
start the latest best-seller—even if it is to be the 











PREPARATION OF A SERMON 99 


subject of half the sermons in the town next 
Sunday. Dr. Whyte’s remark to the Iady who 
- inquired if he had read some recent hair-rais- 
_ ing, ephemeral novel was very apropos—"“No, 
Madam, I have not. Have you read Paradise 
BR Lost’? 
~~~ One book, at least, we must study. The Bible 
is our textbook, and familiarity with it is a sine 
quanon. There are three ways of reading it, and 
we should omit none of them. We may study it 
as scholars; we may meditate on it devotionally; 
and we may read it as literature. My plea is that 
we should not neglect the last of these. Take 
a Gospel or a Book of Wisdom, or an Epistle, 
at a sitting. Buy a Bible with wide margins— 
the wider the better—and, with a trustworthy 
commentary at your side and a pencil in your 
_ hand, keep your eyes open for three discoveries. 
First, the homogeneous passage, particularly if 
it be dramatic in form—such as Isaiah 1: 1-18 
or Psalm 2. Second, the striking phrase—such 
as, “Thy Sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O 
Greece.” And, third, above all, that best of 
_ gifts to a preacher, the text that divides itself— 
such as, “He leadeth me in the paths of righteous- 
ness (or, “straight paths’) for His Name’s 


a 


100 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


sake.” * Be careful, when reading the Bible in 
this way—or, indeed, any other book,—to have 
that pencil ready. Books, and _ particularly 
Bibles, are meant to be written in and marked. 
If any bibliophile raises shocked hands at this 
statement, let me remind him of the distressing 
fate of the man who “roasted not that which he 
took in hunting.” The only result of his day’s 
work was a smell of decaying venison at his back- 
door, where he dropped the carcass when he came 
home. Many a man’s reading is after that pat- 
tern—and all for the lack of a pencil, wherewith 
to mark his books and make notes. Books are 
not ornaments, but means for conveying ideas 
from the author’s mind into the reader’s, and are 
to be treated as such. 

The written word is, however, not the only 
source whence comes fullness of mind. “The 
proper study of mankind is man.” The preacher 
will obtain his best material from his reading 


* If a text like this does not “split itself up” before a minister’s 
eyes, he must be asleep. The heads are obvious. (1) The fact of 
Divine Control—‘He leadeth me.” (2) The good results of 
Divine Control—“He leadeth me in straight paths.” (3) The 
reasons for belief in the certainty of the good results—“for His 
Name’s sake.” Texts of this sort frequently make the best ser- 
mons. They prevent us from using a verse of Scripture.as a 
diving-board into deep waters, where, as the old Scots woman re- 
marked we have “nae groun’, but juist gae soomin’ aboot.” 


ae 


Pate soe rt  < 





PREPARATION OF A SERMON 101 


in human nature. The pastoral and the preach- 
ing offices are indubitably intertwined. We must 
know some people to preach to anybody: and 
we must know our own people to preach to them. 
And there is no way of getting to know them, but 
by coming into personal contact with them. 
Somehow, sometime, the preacher must visit. 

Now, here’s a pretty problem. It may be all 
very well in the country. It is usually all very 
well in a man’s first charge, for it will probably 
be small. But what about the city minister— 
that hustled jack-of-all trades, who seldom sees 
his own children? How is the pastoral office to 
be filled in these days of endless activities? I do 
not know that there is a more practical question 
before the Church. 

Two points, at any rate, are clear—no man 
will keep up his pulpit efficiency who is not in 
constant touch with common folk; and that 
preacher will be most effective who is the per- 
sonal friend of all his members. ‘The only prac- 
tical suggestion I can make is that it is possible, 
slowly, to ge 0 get many ‘of your people t to ec come to see 


en enn ee 


Tae it clear that you welcome them, you will 
be surprised to what an extent they will take 


102 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


advantage of the opportunity. In large congre- 
gations, two men are essential—to one of whom 
the ordinary “social’’ round of visiting will be 
specially intrusted. But the preacher, too, must 
see his people—especially, the seriously sick and 
the young. ‘The latter can, I think, be easily 
persuaded to visit him, On the other hand, if a 
man is to conduct classes as well as to preach 
(and this, I think, is vital to-day), he cannot bé 
expected to call at tea time in every home, once 
a year. He has neither the time nor the physical 
strength, But it will be disastrous if men, start- 
ing out on their ministry, think that the pastoral 
office is negligible, and the preaching office all 
in all, They are doomed from the beginning to 
be bad preachers. My advice is that we again 
take our office-bearers into our confidence, telling 
them exactly what we have to do and how long 
it takes us to do it. They are, as aforesaid, 
reasonable men, and respond to confidence: and 
they can create a tone in our congregations which 
prevents unreasonable pastoral demands, and de- 
velops a habit of visiting the minister, rather than 
of being visited by him. And we can comfort 
ourselves with this reflection—if we go to those 





PREPARATION OF A SERMON 103 


who really need us, we shall go to all our people 
in due time.* 

One object of pastoral care must never be 
neglected—-the pastorless pastor himself. He 
needs his quiet hour, when the door of his chamber 
is shut and he is alone. His care of himself, in 
the midst of the severe and subtle temptations 
of the ministerial life, demands the solivary place 
of remembrance. His preaching, too, requires 
him to face the facts, especially the harsh facts, 
of his own life, and to discover the spiritual 
meaning of his own experience. He is not likely 
to “give draughts restorative’ to his hearers un- 
less they “well from the deeps of his own soul.” 
So find time—make time—to brood. “TI am still 
a slow study,” wrote Stevenson, “and sit for. a 
long “while silent on my eggs. In conscious 
thought, that is the only method. Macerate. your 
subject, let it boil slow, then take the lid off and 
Took in, and there i is your. stuff—good 0 lor bad.7 
If these are the processes by which a novelist and 

* Our little plan, which is adopted in my own congregation, may 
be helpful to others. We have little cards, on which there is 
printed a message of greeting and sympathy. On these cards, 
the sermon texts for the day are written, and each card is signed 
by me. They are then tied with ribbon to a flower from the 
church and taken to all the sick and aged, after the morning 


service, by young ladies. It is a custom that seems to be appre- 
ciated. 


104 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


essayist brings forth his work, how much more 
are they necessary for the preacher, who must 
explore the recesses of his own soul? It is not 
easy to compel ourselves to seek the quiet place 
in the quiet hour. But we must. 

(c) Preaching consists not only in speaking 
sense, but in speaking that particular sense 
which the occasion demands. ‘Therefore, in addi- 
tion to the full mind, it requires the ready mind. 

Now, the basis of a ready mind is memory; 
and aspiring preachers will early cultivate that 
faculty. Of all our faculties, none responds more 
to cultivation. Amazing instances of the extent 
to which it can develop will occur to us all. I 
knew a man who could repeat the whole of the 
Anglican burial service, because, twenty years 
before, the position he then occupied often neces- 
sitated his attendance at funerals conducted by 
Anglican clergy; and yet he had never made any 
conscious effort to learn it. The power to deliver 
a long address verbatim after writing it, and with 
only one re-reading, is reasonably common. It 
is a mistake, I think, to trust to a power of that 
sort in the pulpit. Memorized sermons, as a rule, 
betray themselves. But it is no mistake to culti- 
vate memory, so as to have the resources of your 








PREPARATION OF A SERMON 105 


reading at hand when you want them. So begin 
at once—you cannot begin too soon—and learn 
poetry and devotional passages from King 
James’ version every morning before breakfast. 
Let me make one poor boast—I did that every 
morning for five years in my student days, and 
I have been thankful for it ever since. In addi- 
tion to giving a store of knowledge, to be drawn 
on at command, it does much to improve us in 
devotional speech: and, anyhow, if you do it, you 
will look back on yourself with a certain satisfac- 
tion in the time to come. 


II. 


The second type of preparation we have 
termed semi-direct. By that I mean those pre- 
arrangements and plannings which keep us 
ahead of our work. Remember how much we 
have to do. T'wo sermons, a week-night address 
and a Bible-class instruction (or their modern 
equivalent), together with outside speeches and 
lectures, keep us busy. If our work is not planned 
in advance, we shall collapse. 

Fortunately, to some degree, our work tends 
to plan itself. We shall be very foolish if we 


106 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


do not follow the Christian Year, and thereby in 
association with our fellow-Christians, find that 
our subjects are frequently chosen for us. The — 
great festivals and the Lenten season are now 
commonly remembered in our churches: but we 
might go further and also observe Advent—those 
four Sundays before Christmas, when we should 
call the attention of our people to the “solem- 
nities,’—and such a tender day as All Souls’ 
Day at the end of October. The advantage of 
the Church Year is not only that it compels us — 
to preach on the whole round of the Christian — 
faith, but that it determines our choice of a sub- 
ject for half the Sundays of the year and thereby 
saves us that painful search which makes Tues- 
day so often a depressing day. { 

And, I hope, the old fashion of “courses” is — 
not going to be given up. They are helpful — 
to everybody—to the minister, as safeguards — 
against casualness in study, and to the people, 
for they are assured of some sustained instruc- — 
tion. They should not, indeed, continue too long. — 
When I was a boy I heard sermons on the Epistle — 
of James for nearly ten consecutive months, and — 
have not been enthusiastic about that book since. — 
Six or seven sermons are numerous enough for — 








PREPARATION OF A SERMON 107 


any course; and courses, following on each other, 
should vary in type. You can have the detailed 
(the “pre-Raphaelite,” if you prefer it) course, 
in which you go carefully down a few verses, 
word by word. That is the way to treat the 
opening passages of Ephesians or Colossians. 
But a series such as that should be followed by 
an “impressionist” course, in which you select the 
“high-lights” of a book, or give a bird’s eye view 
of the teaching of a prophet. You will find 
Ezekiel excellent materiai for that kind of treat- 
ment. And, once in a while, you can vary it, by 
having a purely theological, or topical, series. 
Try some consecutive sermons, sometime, on the 
doctrine of the Cross, or on the Christian vocabu- 
lary, choosing great words such as Sin, Faith, 
Redemption, Life, Love. 

At any rate, do not begin a series until, say, 
three months after you have decided upon it. 
Use the interval to get the general scheme clear 
in your mind, and to discover where you can lay 
hold of your material, when you come to working 
out details. For only so will you be defended 
from the hand-to-mouth methods, which weaken 
so many ministers. Profanely searching the 
Scriptures for a text ‘on Saturday morning ‘is 


— ecsneer tp neal vaEe HOO 
eee rene tens te 


108 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


the precursor of many a ministerial failure. 
We are not likely to be inspired when we are 
‘desperate. 

And as we plan subjects far ahead, so also 
plan each week ahead. If we are in the middle 
of a series, or approaching a festival, one sermon 
is settled. We shall be well advised to get the 
other subject selected as early in the week as pos- 
sible. For, thereby, we save ourselves subcon- 
scious worry, and have all our work to brood on 
for the maximum length of time. ‘The question 
of choosing our second text is not always an 
easy one: and the following suggestions may be 
helpful. Special occurrences, in the national or 
parochial life, are the most obvious starting points 
in the choice of a sub ject. If none of these has 
happened, very likely some immediately previous 
experience, either personal or pastoral, will set 
the mind working. ‘Take a little time to search 
through memory to see if God has not been teach- 
ing some particular lesson in the preceding week. 
If nothing suggests itself, turn to your marked 
Bible, until a verse, that you have formerly noted, 
fastens itself on the mind. Most of our second 
sermons are, I suppose, chosen in this way: 
but, you observe, it implies that we have a well- 





PREPARATION OF A SERMON 109 


marked Bible to turn to. If all else fails, then 
take a block of Scripture,—a parable or a com- 
pleted argument in an Epistle, or a Bible char- ° 
acter, and force yourself to make a sermon. 
Sometimes, of course, a discourse produced in 
this way will be rather an artisan affair: but you 
will often be surprised and delighted to discover 
how the mind begins to waken up, and produce 
work as good as you can do. If you have a gift 
that way, the selection of a Bible character is 
probably the most promising. But be sure you 
have the gift for that type of’ preaching, before 
indulging in it overmuch. Some men are extraor- 
dinarily good at it—and a very fine kind of work 
is can be. Most of us, however, should only go 
to it when we are in the mood: otherwise we shall 
produce discourses of the “when, where, what” 
sort—when Moses lived, where Moses lived, and 
what Moses did when he lived. In the arid mo- 
ments, we are safest to stick to a passage of 
Scripture, such as a parable, which we can try to 
explain. In any case, however bad the going may 
be, we should be able to say “a poor thing—but 
mine own.” Plagiarism has been defined as that 
degree of dependence upon another man’s work, 
which would make us ashamed if we suddenly 


110 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


saw him, while we were preaching. May none of 
us ever experience shame of that sort. 


It. 


Thus, at last, we arrive at direct preparation. 
Let us put down our suggestions, seriatim, as 
they come. 

(a) Paraphrase your passage or text and de- 
fine the main terms in it. Be precise and clear 
as to meaning—and keep an especially alert eye 
on such words as “law,” “natural” and “justice.” 

(b) Take a large sheet of paper, and jot down 
any ideas which the text suggests to you—any- 
how. Do not trouble about their logical sequence, 
Your business at present is to get your “apper- 
ceptive mass’ moving. It does not matter what 
comes, provided it has some relation to the sub- 
ject in the text: down with it. 


(c) Get a system of numbering heads and sub- | | 
heads, which you always use. It should not be a 


too elaborate, but (to my mind) it should pro- i 
vide for quite a series of subdivisions. Person- — 
ally, I use I, i, a, 1, in that order. As a rule, — 


the first three are sufficient. Their chief use is 


in arranging the ideas that have been flung in 
confusion on your sheet of paper. 





PREPARATION OF A SERMON 111 


(d) Set to and number these ideas accord- 
ingly, seeking strength to cultivate the grace of 
rejection. It is hard to leave out a pretty quo- 
tation: but, unless it forces its way in, keep it out. 

(e) Copy out, on a clean sheet of paper, the 
ideas you have retained, in the order in which you 
have numbered them—writing your sub-heads 
with a wider margin. The same arrangement on 
the paper, as well as the same numbering, greatly 
helps memory, if your memory is a visual one. 

When you have done that, the outline of your 
sermon will be complete, and it will fall into a 
mold something like this :— 


Introd. 
ly 
a. 
b. 
ii. 
ili. 
iv. 
I, 
it 
ii. 
II. 
ij 
a. 
b. 


112 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


ITI. 
i. 
a. 
b. 
c. 
ii. 
a. 
b. 
c. 
iii. 
a. 
b. 
| c. 
Concl. 


Then, if you like, you can write the whole thing 
out at top speed: or you can put the outline in 
your sermon-case, thankful that another job of 
work is finished. Personally, I do the latter. | 

Now, you observe that the three points of — 
hard work are when we are defining our text, 
squeezing our minds for related ideas, and, 
finally, arranging and discarding. Our chief — 
difficulty is how to secure that all our own re- 
sources will be at our disposal, when we are at 
the second process. The collection of references 
in a card-index, or on a wide-margined Bible, is 
helpful, no doubt—though I have never found | 
a system entirely satisfactory. But one thing 
I have found very profitable—namely, to talk 
over the subject with an understanding friend. 








PREPARATION OF A SERMON 113. 


Conversation tends to clarity and logical pro- 
gression: and it sets two apperceptive masses 
moving in place of one. The difficulty, of course, 
is that it implies a partner. Well, there are such 
thing's as secretaries, or brother ministers, or even 
wives. At any rate, I am certain that many a 
sermon would be strengthened, and many a bad 
argument prevented, if a minister had a chance 
to discuss his thoughts before he preached them. 

It may be of interest to students to see what 
a sermon form of that kind looks like when the 
notes are filled in. The numbering printed above 
is that of the morning sermon preached in Old 
St. Andrew’s Church, Toronto, on Sunday, May 
23rd, 1927. It was not written with any thought 
_of being used as an illustration in this book, but 
it happens to be a good enough instance of the 
notes of an ordinary morning sermon—fashioned 
in the way I am recommending. I have resisted 
the temptation to alter it for publication, and 
print it exactly as I took it into the pulpit with 
me. I had it in the Bible in the page after the 
one on which the text occurred so as to be able 
to find it quickly if my memory failed; but 
nothing untoward like that happened. Notes 
such as these fill three sides of an ordinary double 


114 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


sheet of note paper. On the fourth side, I enter 
the text, the lessons read, and the date and ser- 
vice of preaching. I find that, with notes of 
this kind, I can recapture a sermon even after 
many years. This particular discourse did not 
prepare “smoothly.” I had to recast it twice, 
and students may obtain some entertainment by 
tightening its links and generally improving it. 
The text was “Blessed are they who have not 
seen, and yet have believed,” from John 20:29— 
a “proper passage’ for this season of the year, 
lying between the Resurrection and Ascension. 


Introd. 


i. We must all feel sympathy with doubting Thomas, 
because— 

a. He was so much in accord, intellectually, with 
our time, and because 

b. He was the possessor of an unfortunate tem- — 
perament—pessimistic and melancholic: for 
which he was no more to blame than for a 
tendency to rheumatism or tuberculosis. 

ii. Moreover, he was a very fine fellow—loyal in — 
spite of melancholia, hopeful in spite of dread. 
There will be a lot like him in heaven. 

iii. In this story, we see his sort symbolised as satis- 
fied at last. The ‘sorrowful spirit’ transmuted 
into joy in the perfected kingdom. 








PREPARATION OF A SERMON 115 


iv. 


The incident is specially significant for the gen- 
eralism to which it gives rise. 

The risen Christ is looking forward to the Church 
that is to be and foreseeing its difficulties. 

No literal proof: no seeing of wounds. Nothing 
but His spiritual presence and power. 

And of them He says “Blessed are they. ... ” 
Blessed are they who may not walk by sight, but 
succeed in walking by faith. 


I. Religious faith is ultimately trust in a particular Per- 
son: for Christian faith that Person is Christ. 


if 


ii. 


It involves 

a. Intellectual assent to His teaching. 

b. Practical obedience to His commands. ° 

It implies the possibility of mistake. 

It would not be trust if there were not reasonable 
grounds for thinking that conceivably, in so trust- 
ing, we are wrong. 

There is an element of risk in faith. 


II. The Regions of Risk in Faith. 


it 


li. 


We have to choose, often,. between different 

goods. 

a. The denial of either means the denial of a full 
life. 

b. And we may be “martyrs by mistake.” 
e. g., the clash between duty and happiness. 
The denial of the latter means the denial of 
elasticity and buoyancy. In the perfect life, 
God shall wipe away these tears, at any rate. 

Or, to take the same point from another angle, 

there is the clash between our duty to ourselves 

and to our neighbours. 

“Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself”. 

It is that ‘“‘as’” that creates all the trouble. 


116 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


ili. 


iv. 


Further, there is the clash between our ideal of 
duty and our own power. 

On the one hand “I know I ought”. 

On the other “I am sure I can’t’. 

Is a clash like that God’s will; or are we mistaken 
about the “ought’’? 

And, finally, there is the perplexity due to the 
fact that the harsher demands of right are often 
caused by 

a. Other people’s sin, or 

b. Their inevitable imperfection. 

The former has nothing to do with God: the latter 
seems to make Him an imperfect worker. 

Cag, 

under (a) a daughter with an unreasonable, selfish 
parent. 

under (b) a wife, or a husband, with a mate that 
was born a “mollusc”. 

What is the right thing to do in these circum- 
stances? At any rate, there is plenty of room 
for walking by faith. 


III. The Call of Christ to take the risk. 


i. 


This is explicit, unhesitating, clarion-like. 

It contains 

ad Segiiye (erst ia) eee 

b. The path of search is the path of the Cross. 
ce. “Follow Me”. 

There is no question about the Christ-demand: 
either in precept or example. When in doubt, 
listen to the inner voice that calls to self-denial. 


ii. Wherefore, our duty is 


a. Cultivate the ear that is sensitive to the “long, 
low note of sacrifice’. 

b. If we would satisfy our minds, let us “‘uni- 
versalise our conduct’?/ 











PREPARATION OF A SERMON 117 


c. When things are bad, turn sharp into His 
society. “Straight to His presence get me and 
Peveaiit.. sie. ? 

iii. If we do that last, certain results follow. 

a. A feeling that we must not let Him down, and 
of utter shame, when we remember that we 
have done so. 

b. A compelling thought that His loveliness must 
be right. 

ce. A remembrance of the results that followed 
on His own loyalty to the inner voice. 

After all, He does not ask us to go where He 

feared to lead. Our worst is but a shadow of 

His pain. 


Concl. Thus, at least, the heart grows warm again; we 
feel the gallantry of “Stand thou on that side... ” 
And then, in assenting, there touches us, “with a 
ripple and a radiance’’, the promise of His renewal— 
when at last pain shall yield to peace for those who, 
having been faithful, are blessed in their Heavenly 
Father’s realm. Amen. 


IV. 


There remains only the vexed question of de- 
_ livery, about which I propose to say very little, 
_ because everybody—in pulpit and in pew alike 
_—has his mind made up. The verdict is in favour 
_ of the spoken and against the read sermon: and 
_ it is no use arguing about it. 
But I will allow myself the freedom of record- 
ing my opinion that, for a sustained minis- 





118 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


try, really good reading is the best preaching. — 
Donne, Newman and Chalmers, to mention no — 
others, were all readers; and though, doubtless, 
it was “fell reading yon,” nevertheless it was ~ 
reading. A read sermon is more likely to be — 
proportionate in its parts and to achieve a true ~ 
literary distinction. It is at once a deterrent to ~ 
fatal fluency, and a lessener of nervous strain. ~ 
But—and here’s the rub—it is not easy to write — 
a sermon as distinct from an essay; and to preach } 
a written sermon, as distinct from reading it, is | 
very difficult. If you are going to read, you 
must write in the spoken style. As your pen flies — 
over the paper, you should have your congre- — 
gation before your eyes. Things are going well, — 
if you find your left hand gesticulating in the 
air as you write. If, in addition, you are one of : 
these masters of voice, who can follow a manu-— 
script without developing a pulpit accent, then — 
do not let anyone stop you from reading. But — 
most of us cannot do that. We lose spontaneity; j 
we become monotonous and wooden; and our in- | 
effectiveness finally drives us, willy-nilly, to ex-— 
tempore preaching. And if that is your best — 
method, do not stop at half-way houses. Memo- — 
rising is far too great a strain, and it has the — 





PREPARATION OF A SERMON 119 


appearance of spontaneity without the reality— 
despite the example of the great French preach- 
ers, who adopted this method. Elaborate notes 
break the connection between speaker and audi- 
ence, if they are constantly being referred to. 
The best way is to get your outline photographed 
in your mind; put it somewhere in the Bible, 
where you cannot see it but can find it if the 
weather gets heavy; and then step back in the 
pulpit, trust in Providence, and heave ahead. 

But. that does not mean that we should not 
write sermons at all. On the contrary, I think 
we should write out one a week in the earlier 
- part of our ministries, if only as a discipline and 
_ to cultivate a literary style. Further, our prep- 
aration should be more, and not less thorough, 
_ than if we are going to read. We ought to know 
our work so well by Saturday at mid-day that 
we can give Saturday evening to recreation, and 
Sunday morning, after one glance through our 
_ sermon notes, to the preparation of our prayers 
and to the quietening of our hearts, so that 
with slow, unhurried steps we may walk into our 
_pulpits to utter the solemn words which mark 
the beginning: of a noble enterprise—“Let us 
worship God.” 


CHAPTER V. 


THE TEACHING METHODS OF OUR LORD. 





EFORE we leave this matter of preaching, _ 
B it may be well to spend a little time to — 
glance at the methods which were used by Him ~ 
who manifestly was the Teacher sent from God. — 
But, first, it is necessary to enter a certain caveat. — 
It is not possible for us to copy Jesus: His — 
methods, like His message, are His own. The © 
question which simple, devout souls sometimes — 
put to themselves in a difficulty—‘“what would 
Jesus do?”—is a question which does credit to 
their piety, but not always to their intelligence. q 
For it assumes that only that Which Jesus would 
do is fit for us todo. You cannot conceive Him © 
as being engaged in the vast majority of the 
specialized activities of modern society, such as — 
playing in an orchestra, or poring over the minu- — 
tie of scholarship. Indeed, you cannot imagine — 
Him doing anything other than that on which ~ 
He actually spent His life. . The proper question — 

120 








THK TEACHING METHODS 121 


to put to ourselves is, not “What would Jesus 
do?” but “What would Jesus have me to do?” 
For He had a baptism to be baptised with, and 
was pained when His friends did not realize that 
He must be about His Father’s business; and, 
therefore, was excluded from many of the quite 
honourable interests of ordinary men. 

Reflections such as these bear upon the ques- 
tion of His example as a preacher, Because He 
was unique, His methods may well be unique 
also. Seeing that our teaching is so largely 
derivative, while His was direct, our methods 
may be expected to be different from His. Fur- 
ther, Jesus was not confined to a settled pas- 
torate, which calls for the continuous repetition 
of the same religious ideas to the same group: 
and He was free to break through the trammels 
of convention, inevitably associated with an es- 
tablished organization. 

At the same time, He was the Preacher; and 
it is surely seemly to study the manner, as well 
as the matter, of His message. We may, thereby, 
find guidance in regions that are full of pitfalls. 
At least, we may catch something of the spirit 
of confidence and of reverence, which determined 
not only what He said, but how He said it. 


122 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


Wherefore, let us set down, as they come, some 
of the characteristics of the form of His teaching, 
which leap to the eye as we turn the pages of 
the records. 


I, 


Our Lord evidently held that preaching was 
intended to give vitality by means of illumina- 
tion. Therein, He must have been in startling _ 
contrast to the doctors of the synagogue, who, 
as they taught, bound fresh burdens, grievous 
to be borne, on the shoulders of their hearers. 
Legality rather than vitality was their object; 
vitality rather than legality was Christ’s. He 
was more concerned with the “how” of living than 
with the “what” of it: or, if that be a false an- 
tithesis, He felt that man’s chief need was not 
enlightenment as to the law, but power to keep 
the law he knew. So He showed men God, and 
told them about His willingness to give them the 
Holy Spirit. When people left Christ’s presence 
they did not shake their heads and say, “How 
high is this hill that we have to climb,” but “We 
believe that we shall really be able to climb this 
hill, steep as it is; and, what’s more, it will be 
worth it, when we get to the top.” A point, this 








THE TEACHING METHODS 123 


surely, for all preachers today, or any other day. 
It is hope that saves—the hope of power, through 
which we may be more than conquerors. We 
_ shall be poor ambassadors for Christ, if we do 
not make this note dominant in our preaching. 
_ From this general observation, we can proceed 
to enumerate the characteristics of the method 
_ which Jesus employed to show, not the weight 
_ of our burdens, but the power by which we can 
. bear them. 

1. On the whole, and in His intimate dis- 
- courses, He worked upwards rather than down- 
- wards—from an instance to a principle, from the 
_ particular to the general, from the seen to the 
_ Unseen, from man to God. Instances innumer- 
| able suggest themselves. Starting from a, lost 
coin, a grain of wheat, or a hungry boy, He 
worked up till He left His hearers secure in the 
love of God. The preaching of the synagogue 
_ reversed this order. It began with a general 
_ rule, such as the rule not to labour on the Sab- 
_ bath, and worked down to particular applications, 
_ which only made life more difficult for working 
| folk. Protestant preaching has often tended to 
the same method. Taking an abstract proposi- 
_ tion as the starting point, it worked down from 


124 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


an application of the general to the particular, 
and thence to the man who happened to be sit- 
ting in the pew—probably, and not unnaturally, 
asleep. The method of J esus, surely, is more 
likely to keep attention and to leave hope in its 
train. Let men start with what they know— 
let them contemplate “every common bush,” and, 
before they have finished, they may discover that 
it is a burning bush, “aflame with God.” 

2. And then, the freshness of those lovely 
stories, in which He so gently lifted men up from 
the things around them to the thought of God’s 
love. ‘They have the flavour of a morning in 
May,—“a morning at seven, dew-pearled.” To 
hear them, after hearing the prosy disquisitions of 
the scribes, must have been like stepping out of a 
musty room into God’s fresh air in a Highland 
strath. ‘They are akin to the flowers, and the 
grass, and the sunlight. No wonder that the 
common people heard Him gladly. Is it not true 
that we have turned our churches into the musty 
room and made them the direct descendants of 
the synagogue? And is it beyond our range to 
bring in something of the sweet air and the danc- 
ing light, into which the teaching of Jesus always 
seems to lead us? 





THE TEACHING METHODS 125 


3. The naturalness (it is a poor word, but I 
can think of no better) of the forms He used 
leaps to the eye as spontaneously as their fresh- 
ness. He is true to Himself, all the time. Here 
is no copy, and no copyist. As the lark ascend- 
ing’ sings out its own heart, so Jesus teaches in 
the manner that natively springs from His own 
mind, 

4. The simplicity of it all equally delights and 
amazes us. Anybody can understand that story 
about the boy that went away. No old woman 
of the isles was ever in doubt about its meaning. 
But it is the simplicity of depth—like some clear 
water, on which the sunlight falls. No wayfaring 
man need fail to comprehend: but the wise bring- 
ing all their learning, will never be able to say 
they have exhausted its riches. 

It is, I think, due to the fact that Jesus worked 
upwards, that simplicity so marks His teaching. 
: _ He begins so near to ordinary life. Children at 
play, Pilate’s folly, a sleepy citizen in bed—all 

these are part and parcel of the ordinary images 
of ever yday. Noone was puzzled by them. Per- 
haps, too, the platform which He used was a 
help—for He spoke mostly in the open air: and 
: His manner as He spoke assisted, also. There 
| 







126 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


is a delightful picture by a Russian artist of 
the scene at the close of the story of the Good — 
Samaritan, when Jesus is putting, to a badly © 
trapped lawyer, the question “Which now was — 
neighbour unto him that fell among thieves?” 
Our Lord is portrayed as standing not far from 
the roadside, surrounded by a little group of peo- 
ple, mostly insignificant to look at. Along the — 
track, a young woman is passing on a mule: her 
veil is drawn back and her eyes, grave and search- — 
ing, are focused on the Master’s face. Pressing | 
against Jesus are several little children. Two | 
hold His hands, and He is swinging with them, | 
as He talks. Others are clutching His robe; — 
one, indeed, is adventurously trying to climb up; — 
and another, a tiny fellow, is rubbing his fat, little — 
knuckles into tearful eyes, because he cannot get — 
past the bigger boys. At the back of the crowd, — 
the lawyer is fingering his beard, a delightful — 
figure of perplexity, while Jesus watches him 
with a twinkling smile in His eyes. It is a curi- © 
ously convincing picture. ‘That was the way, — 
we feel, that Jesus taught: and perhaps it helps — 
to explain why He could keep, apparently so 4 
easily, in touch with life as it is. I wonder if 





THE TEACHING METHODS 127 


we should get on better, if we made the lake- 
side and the field our pulpit? 

5. One point in His method, at any rate, is 
indubitable. He disdained neither the use of 
imagination or humour. Nobody, obviously, can 
‘deny that He allowed His mind to soar imagin- 
atively where it would; but there are those who 
to deny that He permitted the humourous to 
sparkle through His words. A great Scottish 
scholar of the last generation is alleged to have 
said that he could not conceive of Jesus as smil- 

ing, and, far less, laughing. Well, there are 
smiles and smiles: and that Jesus smiled at the 
humourous, and that He caused His hearers to 
| break into delighted laughter, seems to me to be 
| written clearly in the records. The picture, which 
some of the parables create in the mind, have all 
the elements of humour in them. Can you not see 
that sleepy citizen, with tousled hair, coming 
down in his dressing-gown, to grunt out a refusal 
to what he thought a perfectly idiotic request for 
the loan of a loaf? If he does not move us to a 
smile, the word-portrait of the snubbed “climber” 
certainly will. You can see him (or her), stout 











‘and overdressed, coming back with a very red 
face, after the unsuccessful attempt to grab a 


128 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


seat at the head table. Dr. Glover points out 
that the idea of swallowing a camel must have 
been highly diverting to simple Eastern people, 
who knew all about camels, and their humps and 
hoofs and general rampageousness. ‘The fact is 
that we have to modernize the parables, before 
we catch their full flavour. We must think of the © 
sleepy citizen as a town councillor in our own | 
town, and the snubbed guest at the wedding as a — 
local aspirer for social honours, if we would real- 
ize the ripples of laughter with which the original — 
audience heard them. But when we make them 
contemporaneous, we are in no doubt about their 
occasional humour. Take the best instance of — 
all—the instance of the lost coin. Jesus was sur-_ 
rounded by one of the normal crowds, and was 
greatly stirred to speak to them directly of God’s 
love. As usual, His eye ran over them, as He 
sought inspiration, and suddenly it fell on a 
countryman at the back, with his crook in his 
hand. Ina moment the Master was off, speaking 
straight to the shepherd, and leaping upwards, 
from his care for his lost sheep, to the Heavenly 
Father’s care for His children. When the story 
was finished, the Lord’s eye fell on another face 
—the determined-looking, competent face of a 








THE TEACHING METHODS 129 


housewife: and it lit up with a charming gleam 
as He perceived another line of approach. Now, 
make the scene contemporary. Imagine it in 
Scotland—dare we say, in Aberdeen? Scots are 
supposed to carry on and adorn the thnftiness 
of the Hebrews; and Scotswomen are alleged 
to be specially aware of the value of sixpence. 
Notice, particularly, the pointed adverb “dili- 
gently.” “What woman among you who has 
lost a three-penny bit, would not sweep dili- 
gently?” Of course, the people laughed. Cer- 


_ tainly any Greeks that were present did. How 


could they help it? But He did not leave the 


| matter there. His mind afire, He swept on to 
| the story of the wayward son—a story, the music 
_ of which will echo in men’s hearts to the end of 
time. The humour was but a stepping-stone to 
_ beauty and truth. 


6. You notice, further, how He emphasized 


a single idea at a time. The details of the 
_ parables are, I believe, often embroideries to the 
_ story: and the work of commentators, who would 
_ extract theological meaning out of every turn of 
_ phrase, is often a labour lost. We need to look 
_ for the one thought which Jesus was at that time 
engaged in conveying. When we discover it, 


130 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


we are sometimes startled by the daring with 
which it was emphasized. In the instance of the 
parable of the prodigal son, there are apparently | 
no limits to the lengths He will go to impress 
on us God’s longing for our return. A father, 
leaning over a gate at the end of a farm lane, 
watching the road every evening in the gloaming; 
and, at last, running to meet the tattered figure — 
of his son and holding him to his heart as he 
kisses him, is a tender and human figure: but it 
is a strange image for Almighty God. Yet that 
is the image which Jesus chose for the most inti- 
mate of all His teachings on the Father. He was 
evidently anxious that we should believe that God 
loves us. At any rate, He spared no vigour of 
emphasis in His telling. 

7. Further, His skill in repetition is easy to 
discern. In Luke 15 the same idea is repeated 
thrice, though in the third statement of it a new — 
point of teaching is added. ‘The active longing © 
of God is displayed in all three parables, but in 
the last of them He reminds us that a son is more | 
than a sheep or a coin. The latter are simply 
found; but the former must himself say “I 
wil arise and go’—a vital point for preaching. | 
Even with this addition, however, the repetition 














THE TEACHING METHODS 131 


is very skilful. Jesus made the same point three 
times in one short conversation, and no one was 
wearied. 

8. And, finally, there are the related char- 
acteristics of His “surefootedness,’ and His 
spiritual anxiety. In the divine region where 
man has lost his way, Jesus walks confidently, 
as in a country that He knows well—a country 
that is His own. It was a perception of this sure 
sense of direction that made people say that He 
spake with authority and not as the scribes. And 
this spiritual awareness makes more poignant the 
anxiety that rings through His “Verily, verily,” 
and quivers in His voice as He pleads that those 
who have ears may hear. 


il, 


What, then, has all this to do with us? Does 
it bear any relation to our humble work? Surely, 
in three ways it gives us hints as to certain ideals 
at which we should aim. 

1. First, let us learn to be ourselves, when 
we preach—ourselves and not another. Pale 
copies of some famous preacher are all too com- 
mon, and as ineffective as they are frequent. An 


132 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


unfortunate by-product of the impact of a great 
personality upon lesser minds is the creation of 
a school of mimics, rather than disciples. We 
all have known little quasi-replicas of Joseph 
Parker or Ian Maclaren, who reproduced the 
mannerisms, without the flame, of their models. 
It is, of course, impossible to avoid being in- 
fluenced by a master of the craft: but a man 
must be on his guard against submerging his own 
personality. For that reason it is not, I think, 
advisable to read too many sermons by other 
men. Apart from the danger of direct plagia- 
rism, there is the subtle risk of being coerced into 
using forms and attempting methods that are 
effective only when allied to a distinct, sharply 
outlined type of mind. The stately robes of a 
great orator change painfully into cap and bells 
when assumed by smaller men. “To thine own 
self be true” is sound advice for a preacher. A 
man’s mental stature will increase if he studies 
great literature: but, at each stage of his develop- 
ment, his expression should be native to himself. 
If we try to make religious truths clear in the 
pulpit in the way in which we make them clear 
to ourselves (having due regard, of course, to 
the decorum of a church), we shall not go far 








THE TEACHING METHODS 183 


wrong. At any rate, Christ’s example is clear: 
do not imitate, but be yourself. 

2. Second, we should cultivate diligently the 
use of imagery with a view to repetition. We 
are not far off the mark if we say that preaching 
is the art of saying the same thing over and over 
again without wearying our hearers. After all, 
the main religious ideas are both simple and few. 
It is their illustration and application that are 
varied: and we have to call in all our resources 
of imagination, if our work is to keep fresh. We 
need to develop the “homiletic eye,” which is 
acute to perceive material for our work wherever 
we go, and finds sermons in stones, books in the 
running brooks. Almost everything we can 
learn, or see, will be grist to our mill some day: 
and the variety of our preaching will depend on 
our alertness of vision at all times. If we possess 
the seeing eye, we need never retail old sermons, 
but (as Dr. Parker used to say) we shall preach 
“the same good new one, again and again.” 

8. Thirdly, and particularly, we must learn 
to use rightly the humourous and the outré. To 
be rightly guided here is of the utmost impor- 
tance in these days: for many a time the modern 
pulpit ought to be ashamed of its vagaries. Any 











184 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


kind of harlequin-work seems to be justified, if 
it can gather a crowd. As if that were any 
test! A clown will always gather a crowd— 
for a while, especially a clown in God’s house. 
Human nature responds to the bizarre. The 
real test is whether a crowd can be kept—and, 
while kept, can be increasingly interested in 
religion. Against all mere sensation-mongering 
and vaudeville tricks decent men will set their 
faces like flints. But that does not mean that 
humour is not to play through some sermons, or 
that an unconventional man has to be conven- 
tional in his methods. We have all been sorry 
that some of our friends are so wooden in the 
pulpit, when we know them to be vivacious and 
quick-witted talkers by their own firesides. 
Many of the strongest preachers, alike of the 
past and the present, startle staid congregations _ 
by what they say and how they say it: indeed, — 
if more of our flocks were surprised out of their — 
decorous inattention, it would be better for all 
concerned. Our problem is where, and how, to 
draw the line between the owtré, which is reverent 
at its core, and that which is blatantly vulgar. 
The example of Jesus, whose methods must 
have been so starthng to the standardized people 





THE TEACHING METHODS 135 


of His own day, helps us here for three good 
reasons; He loved the lovely; He entirely forgot 
Himself in His message; and He related all His 
work directly to the supreme end of the King- 
dom. True cultivation of self, forgetfulness of 
self and absorption in a noble purpose form a 
triple bondage which spell perfect freedom. As 
is the Master so should the servants be. If His 
spirit is in us, we likewise shall be bound and 
likewise free. In particular, if we are natural 
rebels against the decorous, there is the more 
need for us to have our securities within our- 
selves against the indecorous. With that in view, 
we must endeavour to develop our love of beauty 
in every way we can, adding music and art to 
literature and nature. The vulgarians of the 
pulpit are, if they only knew it, confessing their 
lack of liberal education. ‘They obviously do 
not seek the society of the masters of words, or 
_ sound, or colour. None who frequently betakes 
himself to that kind of comradeship can ever in- 
troduce the banal or the grotesque into God’s 
worship. Still more, vulgarity in preaching is 
a proof of self-centredness. Much that jars in 
_ pulpit work is due to the fact that the preacher 
is self-consciously trying to be “clever.” He is 


136 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


anxious, not that men should be helped to live, 
but that they should think the speaker smart. 


A. temptation of that sort is constantly stabbing _ 


at us—often when we are least aware of it. 
Wherefore, we need to lose ourselves in the pur- 
pose to which the Lord dedicated His life. The 
dream of the kingdom—ah! that is a dream, in- 
deed! When the battlements of the City loom, 
however faintly, through the mists, the tempter 
with his mean allurements slinks away defeated. 
Be passionate with Christ—and then be free! 
The fact is that the métier of the preacher is 
its own defense against unworthy forms of work. 
For a preacher is in part a physician and in part 
a teacher; and neither of these is vulgar, when 
he is engaged on his work. The physician is a 
fighter against disease—and, while a fighter may 
be lighthearted, there is a gravity behind the 
sparkle of his eyes. And a teacher is, or ought 
to be, a lover of truth: and a lover of the true 
may be uncouth, but he is never unseemly. He 
may permit humour, wit and gaiety; he may call 
in the aid of the unexpected and the startling; 
but the truth, whose servant he is, lends him 
its own dignity. So keep in view the ends of 





THE TEACHING METHODS #137 


preaching: and then be, and say, and do what 
you will. — 

Above all, there remains the Master’s ex- 
ample in authority. He spoke because he knew. 
Here, at the best, His servants follow Him afar 
off. But the preachers of His evangel must 
know something for themselves. It is the love 
which has touched their own hearts which they 
desire to commend to those who hear them. And 
that knowledge should grow from more to more, 
until men believe our words because they be- 
lieve that we spoke of that which our own eyes 
have seen. Preaching, finally, depends on life. 
Even the seemliness of its form depends on life. 
It all comes to this—a preacher should be a 


_ Christian gentleman. 


CHAPTER VI. 


THE SACRAMENT. 


N the Church of the Reformation, the Sacra- 
ments are two only in number-—Baptism and 
Holy Communion: and of these two the latter 


is, in common parlance, the Sacrament, which — 


explains the title given to this chapter. But, 
while we shall confine ourselves to the Lord’s 
Supper in this discussion, I would not have us 
think of Baptism as other than a singularly im- 
portant celebration in the worship of the Church. 
Its symbolism is far-reaching, when it reminds 
us that men must die to live, and that even the 
purest of us all needs cleansing. Moreover, in 
Churches such as our own, who hold to the bap- 
tism of infants, it ought to be a marked churchly 
oceasion, at which the members of the Christian 
community take vows to create an atmosphere 
in which the growth of the child into Christian 
faith and discipleship shall be as natural as the 


opening of flowers to the sun. Consequently, 
138 





THE SACRAMENT 139 


baptism should (except in cases where danger 
to health is involved) always be a part of public 


_worship before the whole congregation, who, by 


standing, assent to the vows which are laid upon 
them as well as upon the parents. Ministers 
should be firm with nervous parents and refuse to 
baptize at home or at any other time than at the 
main diet of worship. After all, it is usually 
the father who is timorous, and too much respect 
need not be paid to his nerves. If the health 


of either the mother or the child is such as to 


eee meee eis 





make the journey to the church impossible or 
dangerous, the minister should take an official 
representative of the church with him and should 
encourage the parents to invite as many relatives 
who are members of the church as is convenient. 
We want to get away from the pernicious, magi- 
cal idea that the sprinkling of water and the say- 
ing of a formula is going to make any difference 
to the child per sé: and in its place we need to 
emphasize the noble conception of the reception 
of a little friend into the Society of which the 
Friend of little children is the Head—a Society 
which is rededicating itself for the child’s sake. 
The particular vows should only be taken by 
members of the Church. If both the father and 


140 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


mother are not members, someone else, who is — 
in a position to do it, must take them in their — 
place. Unless some responsible person is quali- — 
fied to take the vows, baptism should not be ad- — 
ministered. The christening of children promis- — 
cuously breeds superstition. 


I, 


The Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper is, how- — 


ever, our main concern, for it is the central act 


of worship of the Christian Church. There are, — 
unfortunately, good grounds for believing that ~ 
a re-emphasis of its supreme importance is badly — 
needed. Quite alarming statements are made by — 
men who are in a position to know, as to the 
casual, and indeed culpable, manner in which 
it is sometimes celebrated—if it is celebrated at — 
all. We cannot be too explicit: the Church is — 
founded on both the Word and the Sacraments: — 
and a Christian Society which neglects either, — 
thereby ceases to be a Church. The Quakers — 
and the Salvation Army both form admirable — 
Christian Societies; but neither administers the 
Sacraments, and, consequently and quite rightly, { 
does not claim to be a Church. Men, who occupy — 








THE SACRAMENT 141 


responsible positions, sometimes make it clear 
that they have only the vaguest idea what Holy 
~Communion purports to be and do: and if they 
are the authentic voice of the Protestantism of 
the New World we need not be surprised at 
reading articles telling us that Protestantism is 
breaking up. 

For the Lord’s Supper was founded by Christ 
Himself: it is continued at His own request: and 
it has become the chief of all the ordinary means 
of grace. It is, in the beautiful words of the 
Scottish liturgy, “singular medicine for sick 
souls.”’ Dr. Robert Bruce, who was minister of 
St. Giles’ in Edinburgh in critical days nearly 
two centuries ago, uttered a good word about it 
when he said, “whereas by the Word I do get 
hold of Christ as it were by my finger and thumb, 
‘in the Sacrament I get hold of Him by my 
haill hand.” In dropping to modern, jejune 
thoughts of it as a mere service of remembrance, 
which can be conducted by anybody, anywhere, 
or can be omitted at pleasure, we are wandering 
far from the Reformation. Luther or Calvin, 
or even Zwingli, would have made short work of 
the disseminators of all such views. It should 
never be forgotten how rich was the sacramental 


1422 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


doctrine of all the Reformers, who held their 
opinions because they found them in Scripture. — 
They would all agree upon some form of teach- | 
ing the Real Presence. “The only difference be-— 
tween us and the Anglo-Catholics,” as somebody © 
said recently, “is that we believe the Real Pres-— 
ence to be intensely spiritual and they believe the © 
Spiritual Presence to be intensely real.” While 
that may be an understatement of the position — 
of the Anglo-Catholics, it is precisely accurate 
in regard to our own, unless we are degenerate | 
sons of the Reformation. j 

Further, inasmuch as the Table offers a “singu- — 
lar medicine for sick souls,’ it is spread for 
sinners: and is, consequently, the supreme com- 











Pe i 


fort-occasion in our worship. There is a beauti- — 
ful little tale, well-known to Scottish ears, of an 
Edinburgh professor, familiarly known as Rabbi ' 
Duncan, who, once, when he was celebrating — 
Communion, noticed that an old woman in the 
front pews, after having received the Bread, had — 
refused the Wine. He stepped down from his ‘ 
place and, taking the Cup from the elder’s hands, 


went back with it, saying “Tak’ it, wumman, 
tak’ it: it’s for sinners.” And she took, drank 





THE SACRAMENT 143 


and was thankful.* The implications of this for 
ministers in inviting people to partake will be 
dealt with later: but, meantime, we gain from it 
an understanding of how far the Sacrament goes 
to meet our deepest needs. For the Sacrament 
is the symbolized offer of pardon, cleansing and 
power. It is the Christian gospel gathered into 
a sign. It speaks directly to the afraid and the 
forsaken. It is, itself, a channel of that grace 
which excludes none but seeks all. And a 
Church which fails to take this thing seriously 
is a Church which has within it the seeds of decay. 


IT, 


Let us, then, spend some time in endeavouring 
to discover the meanings of a service of such 
associations. On our Reformed principles, we 
- must turn to the Scriptures, which are our “rule” 
for faith, and extract from them the various pas- 
_ sages which tell of the institution of the Sacra- 
ment and its attendant circumstances. When 
we have made a harmony of these, we have be- 
_fore us all the material we possess on which to 


*Curiously enough, I had an exactly similar experience with 
| a young soldier in France in the war. I whispered Rabbi Dun- 
' can’s words in his ear, with a similar result. 


144 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


base our doctrine. We must take the records | 
at their face value. Critical inquiry throws no 
doubt on the statement that Jesus declared “This — 
is my body,” as He broke the bread: and, there- 
fore, we have an unquestioned basis for sacra- 
mental teaching. But we are not concerned — 
with critical questions. Working on the agreed 
ground of the authority of the Synoptics and the — 
Pauline Epistles, we seek to discover the teach- 
ing that is in them all, put together. We have 
only four passages, of four verses each, to con-— 
sider—apart from one or two phrases elsewhere, © 
which give us the setting of the Supper. These 
four occur in I Cor. XI: 23-26, Mark XIV: 
22-25, Matt. X XVI: 26-29 and Luke XXII: 
17-20, in that order of date. We may note, in 
passing, that it is significant that the earliest 
account we have is found not in a Gospel but 
in an Epistle, and that it was written to resolve 
disputes which had already arisen concerning 
matters of administration—a proof, surely, of 
the hold which the Supper had obtained on the 
infant Church in the first twenty-five years after 
Christ’s death. If we unite all these passages 
we can, I think, deduce the following scheme of 
eight meanings :— 





II. 





okt: as 


THE SACRAMENT 


Meanings. 
In respect of the Past. 


. The Sacrament is a 


memorial feast. 


In respect of the Pres- 
ent. 
Individual. 


a method of 
teaching truth by sym- 
bol. 


. It is a sacrificial feast. 


4, It is the sign of a fixed 


agreement. 


Social. 


. It is the chief thanks- 


giving Service of the 
Church. 


. It is the family meal 


of the Church. 


. It is the public sign of 


Christian discipleship. 


145 


Scriptural Authority. 


“This do in remembrance of 
Me.” 
I Cor. XI. 24. 


“This is My Body .. . this 
is My Blood.” 
Mark XIV. 22, 24. 
“My Blood ... which is 
shed for many unto remis- 
sion of sins.” 
Matt. XXVI. 28. 
“This cup is the new Cov- 
enant (agreement) in My 
Blood.” 
I Cor. XI. 25. 


“When He had given thanks, 
He brake it.” 

I Cor. XI. 24. 
“He sat down and the twelve 
apostles with him.” 

Luke XXII. 14. 
“Where is the guest cham- 
ber, where J shall eat the 
passover with my disci- 
ples?” 

Luke XXIT. 11. 
“He then, having received 
the sop, went immediately 


out: and it was’ night.” 
John XIII. 30. 


146 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


III. In respect of the Fu- 
ture. 

8. It is the prophecy of “Ye proclaim the Lord’s — 

the perfected kingdom. death till He come.” | 

I Cor (AT 2G; 


Two points, suggested by this scheme, catch 
the attention at once. (1) The Sacrament has 
chiefly to do with the present. One meaning — 
touches the past: one looks into the future: but — 
six have to do with the present. The Scripture 
seems to be heavily against those who see in it — 
only an act of memorial. And (2) it affects 
equally the individual and the. Christian com-_ 
munity. This reacts on the question, to be dis- 
cussed later, of the proper mode or modes in 
which the Sacrament should be celebrated. 


ITI, 


Now that we have stated our scheme of 
meanings, let us examine its component parts 
separately, that we may perceive the varying 
weight of its different elements,—an important 
matter, if we are to understand the Sacrament 
aright. 

1. The Sacrament is a Memorial Feast. It 
is an occasion designed to keep alive a memory: 





THE SACRAMENT 147 


and, therefore, is a member of the class of ““monu- 
mental” feasts, which includes secular, as well 
as sacred, celebrations. It is quite a common 
thing in colleges and schools to have a “Foun- 
der’s day,” on which the main festivity is the 
“Founder’s feast.” At these gatherings, it is 
customary to stand in silence, for a brief space, 
in honour of the benefactor, whose munificence 
_ gave birth to the college. The Lord’s Supper is, 
in the first instance, a memorial of that sort. 
_Itis the Founder’s feast of the Christian Church; 
and its simplicity makes it singularly apt for 
its purpose. The contrast between its beauty 
unadorned and the elaborate magnificence of 
corresponding secular banquets makes it all the 
more effective. A seemly memorial, this, for the 
Meek and Lowly, whose dream was “born in a 
herdsman’s shed.” 
But while this meaning is true and authentic, 
it is the meaning which lies most obviously on 
the surface: and it is more than a pity that it 
has come to be regarded as the sole import of the 
Sacrament by so many people. This is but the 
_ starting-point, from which we proceed to the 
significances which are truly significant. Where- 
fore, we move on to remind ourselves that— 





148 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


2. The Sacrament is a Method of Teaching 
Truth by Symbol. The use of symbol is im- 
portant for the Reformed Churches. We have 
far too little of it. The banishment of the cross 
from our buildings, and especially from our Com- — 
munion Tables, has impoverished us. Many a — 
minister has wished that he could sometimes stop 
his sermon and, holding up a crucifix before his — 
people, tell them to look and preach to them- 
selves. Even so stalwart a defender of simple 
practice as the late Dr. Denny once gave ex- 
pression to a desire of that sort. It may be true 
that our fathers regarded symbols as fit only for 
children—but they forgot that that is precisely 
what we are. It is to be hoped that the years 
ahead will see the increasing use of symbolic art — 
and practice amongst us: but, meantime, we are 
authorized by Scripture to retain two purely 
symbolic services, namely, the Sacraments; and ~ 
we must make the most of them. 

It only needs a cursory glance at the symbolism 
of the Supper to see that it sets forth the heart — 
of the Christian system. The benevolence of 
God is suggested by the fact that the Table is 
spread for us, and that on it He sets gifts, whose 
sole purpose is to sustain life. Our dependence 








THE SACRAMENT 149 


upon God is indicated by our share in the 
Supper: for all that we have to do is to take. 
The historic Life and Death, by which the love 
of God is seen “visibly in the world at war 
with sin,” are, of course, directly signified: but, 
in addition, the principles, which are proclaimed 
by the Life and Death, are shown through the 
symbols as well. For if the Bread and Wine 
declare anything, they declare the principle of 
“life from life through pain and death’—which 
is the condition of all progress. If we allow the 
_ mind to dwell for a while on the processes by 
which both bread and wine become agents to 
_ sustain life, we begin to perceive how eloquent 
| and how deep their symbolism is. For, once, the 
| bread was the seed, which had to lie buried in 
_ the ground, before it became first the blade, then 
_ the ear, then the full corn in the ear. When it 
reached its golden maturity, the sickle was laid 
_ to its stalk, and after it had been harvested and 
_ garnered, it was first ground into meal and then 
_ baked on the fire, before it was ready to change 
_ its life into new life in the bodies of men. A 
_ deeper parallel to the processes by which spiritual 
| nourishment is communicated can hardly be con- 
ceived, except it be in the case of the wine, which 


150 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


is also set on the Table. For, once, that wine 
was the life-blood of some living clusters that 
hung on a vine. Lowly, on the rocky hill-sides, 
the vine-trees grow, pruned continually with 
sharp knives that they may bring forth more 
fruit. Even their little time of beauty is denied 
them, for as soon as the grapes come to their | 
purple fulness, they are plucked’ and flung into 
the wine-press, where, literally, they are trodden 
under the foot of man; thus becoming fit to fill 
the Cup, and to be used to slake man’s thirst. 
After the same manner also is conveyed to man’s — 
spirit the “wine of the soul in mercy shed.” ‘The 
parallelism is arresting and complete. 

All this, and much more, is taught by the 
Sacrament, and it is taught in silence. For once, 
the human voice is stilled: the “arguments about 
it and about” are stayed: and God’s own elo- 
quence has a chance to be heard. No wonder 
that an instructed people place much weight on 
so great an opportunity to learn. | 

3. Next, the Sacrament is a Sacrificial Feast. 
Doubtless, ideas connected with feasts of this 
sort belong to the morning twilight of religion. 
We no longer conceive of God as a Being who | 
requires to be appeased; or imagine that in par- 





: 
| 
| 


THE SACRAMENT 151 


taking of the body of a victim, sacrificed to Him, 
we shall obtain the benefits which that victim 
was sacrificed to secure. But, from these early 
half-thoughts about God and His ways with men, 
certain ideas that are permanently valuable are 
derived, and embodied in the symbolism of the 
Sacrament. We are reminded, in particular, 


that there are certain benefits which cannot be 
earned, but always must come to us in the form 
of gifts, pure and simple. Among these, for- 


_ giveness stands preéminent: and as, around the 
' Table, we eat the bread and drink the wine, we 





remind ourselves not only that forgiveness is 


there to take, and that it is as a gift, and not as 
a right, that we must receive it, but that it is a 
gift which always costs something to the Giver. 
This fundamental, moral fact ought to be ac- 
knowledged by us all, and the idea that, by any 
amount of suffering or endurance of penalty, we 
can square accounts with God, should be put out 
of our minds. The tragedy of sin is that it leaves 
an effect which no subsequent obedience can 
obliterate: for it jars the relation between the 
sinner and the person sinned against, and the old 


relation can never be restored. Imagine a young 
wife, who thinks her husband to be the incar- 


152. PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


nation of all the knightly virtues, suddenly dis- 
covering him in some particularly mean lie. She 
may forgive him. He may repent, and live 
chivalrously ever after. A new, and very tender 
relation between them may be established, but 
it will be different from the old one: and the 
- process of forgiveness, which involves endurance 
of the “jar” and readjustment to the new re- 
lation, obviously involves pain. In the same way, 
we have jarred relations with God: and, if for- 
giveness is to be ours, it must be a gift from 
Him—a gift which spells pain in the giving. All 
this, also, is symbolized in the Supper: which 
should stir us to yield the only return to God, 
which it is in our power to render—namely, to 
receive without hesitation or question, the amaz- 
ing boon of His pardon. We can do nothing but 
take: but that we can do. “What shall I render 
unto the Lord for all His benefits toward me? 
I will take the Cup of Salvation.” 

4. In the fourth place, the Sacrament is a 
Sign of a Fixed Agreement. This meaning I 
hold to be the heart of the Sacrament, and minis- 
ters should give much pains to making it plain 
to their young communicants. In so doing, they | 
should avoid all technical and archaic terms, and 











THE SACRAMENT 153 


endeavor to put it in language that will make it 


_ a living idea to their hearts. It will not be neces- 
_ sary to say much about “covenant meals,” except 
_ to indicate that the Lord’s Supper, related as 
it was to the Passover, falls into the class—a 
class of meal, in which an agreement between 
_ two contracting parties was finally ratified and 


sealed. As we teach, we can draw parallels, ac- 


_ curate enough, between partaking in a meal of 


this sort and signing a “scrap of paper,’ ac- 
cording to our modern custom. In the Sacra- 


_ ment, two persons are fixing an agreement, the 


terms of which are already arranged: and these 
two persons are none other than the individual 
communicant and God Himself. 'The important 
point to emphasize is that both are contracting. 
We are making our promises without doubt: but 
sois God. If we can believe that, and live on the 


_ belief, every Sacrament will be, in truth, a singu- 


lar medicine for our sick souls. 

Now, it is of manifest importance that we 
should be clear and accurate as to the mutual 
terms of a covenant of this kind. ‘The benefits 
of Communion may be lessened, or the Table 


/may be avoided altogether, if we overstate the 
moral obligations involved for us, or understate 


154 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


the promise given by God. Young communi- 
cants nearly always have a wrong idea of the 
responsibilities which they undertake when they 
“come forward.” Consequently, we must be at 
pains to reassure them that God never asks any- 
thing beyond their powers, and that the main 
point of the sacramental act is not to remind them 
what they must do for God, but what God will 
do for them. On the one hand, we sign a double 
agreement involving (a) a purpose of disciple- 
ship, and giving (b) a promise of search for aid: 
on the other hand, God gives a promise of the 
granting of aid sufficient to see us through any- 
thing that may come to us in the way of trial 
or temptation. It is important, I think, to dis- 
tinguish between the statement of purpose and 
the promise, on our side of the bargain. We can- 
not promise perfect discipleship. Next month, 
next year—who knows what sort of follies we 
shall commit? Who is prepared to say he will 
not lose his temper in August, or will do his 
whole duty all through February? But we can 
say that, as far as we know our own hearts, our 
life-purpose is to be Christ’s disciples, and that if 
we sin it will be “not with our consenting.” And, 
further, we can promise always to seek God’s 











THE SACRAMENT 155 


help. That is entirely within the range of our 
wills. I cannot say “I shall be perfectly sweet- 
‘tempered and entirely diligent this day next 
year’; but I can promise “I will ask for the 
divine help this day next year.” Thereby, the 
right use of the day is made much more probable. 
At any rate, an agreement of that kind is one 
which we both can and ought to make; and, 
having made it, we can throw all our attention 
on to the divine promise, that the aid that is 
sought for will be forthcoming. It is this 
thought that makes the Communion so living 
and wonderful an act. It takes us away from 
our poor weakness, and flings us on to the 
_ strength of the Almighty: and it becomes richer 
_and more wonderful still, as the years prove to 
us that God’s promise of aid is a promise that 
is kept. | 

5. ‘Turning now to the communal meanings 
of the Sacrament, we find that it is the Chief 
Thanksgiving Occasion of the Church, Minis- 
ters, who are responsible for the actual cele- 
bration, should have this in their minds, when 
arranging the hymns in the earlier part of the 
service, and when thinking over their prayers. 
A real effort must be made to get away from the 


156 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


idea that it is a funeral service. It is, in point — 


of fact, the precise opposite—it is an occasion of 
Communion with the Risen and ever-Living 
Lord. I have even heard ministers declare that 
they felt it to be out of harmony with HKaster 
Day! Such is the effect of regarding it solely 
as a Memorial service. Anglicans are, of course, 
perfectly right in emphasizing Communion at 
Kaster, when the thought of life as the outcome 
of death is especially in our minds. We must 
try to make it the most hopeful of all our times 
of worship, when we forget ourselves and our 
failures, and look altogether to Him who turneth 
the shadow into the morning. And, as our minds 
move towards Him, and we remember all that 
He does for us, the note of thanksgiving will 
naturally be heard on all our lips. 

6. Further, the Sacrament is the Family 
Meal of the Church. It expresses the unity of 
the Christian society, in which every member 
draws his life from a common source: and indi- 
cates the consequent responsibilities of brother- 
hood. The ethical implications are wide and 
far-reaching. It is a constant rebuke to malice 
and all uncharitableness, and to the lesser, but 
equally ugly, meannesses of snobbery and petty 


THE SACRAMENT 157 


jealousy. We might imagine that a seat at the 
Table was the seat which would be most coveted 
by those who long for social betterment. Where 
will they find the spirit of the ideal society better 
suggested ? 
7. That attendance at the Sacrament is a 
Badge of Christian Discipleship will be denied 
by nobody. On the night of Institution the 
traitor went away, and only Christ’s friends re- 
mained: and, ever since, participation in it has 
been a sign, to all whom it may concern, that 
communicants are on Christ’s side. “I wanted 
to come forrit, for it was the last thing He askit 
o His freen’s” sobbed the girl in Ian Maclaren’s 
story. No wonder that this aspect of the act is 
dwelt upon by sincere young communicants, and 
that it often makes them hesitate. “I am afraid 
that it will be a fraud’—how often have minis- 
ters heard fears like that from some of the best 
of catechumens. And, indeed, such fears are 
justified, for, at the Sacrament we don the 
‘nightly armour of Christ’s Round Table. But 
/we may call to our remembrance that no one 
goes on this warfare at his own charges; and, if 
the responsibilities of discipleship frighten us, 
we can take the mind back to the earlier word, 








158 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


that tells us of a covenant of aid made with us 
by God. And in the hope which He inspires, 
we can enter, or reénter, the lists. 

8. And, finally, the Sacrament is a Prophecy 
of the Perfected Kingdom. As it has its roots 
in the past, so it throws its beams into the future. 
It is the place for the dreamer, and for all to 
whom has come the heavenly vision. For it 
speaks of the far-off Divine event in whose con- 
summation we may share and for which our work 
even now is effective. And because it is a Com- 
munion with the Living Lord, it is also a Com- 


munion with all those who live in Him. Our own > 


dear and blessed dead are not far from us at the 
‘Table: and we obtain there a presage and sur- 
mise of the gladness of rejoicing that God intends 


for us, on the farther shore, some summer morn- © 


ing. If the Sacrament begins with the memory 
of love’s dark ravine of sorrow, it ends with a 
vision of the land of pure delight. As we leave 
the Table, God’s final word, clear and gracious, 
is “I bid you to hope.” 


IV. 


One further point remains to be made, and it — 


is of cardinal importance. The benefits of the | 


THE SACRAMENT _ 159 


Sacrament are inevitably received by every com- 
municant who participates sincerely and recep- 
tively. A spiritual process of strengthening runs 
parallel to the physical process of partaking,— 
provided the communicant is not eating and 
drinking unworthily. If a man comes to the 


| Table carelessly, casually, frivolously; if he does 





| not mean serious, spiritual business; if he is liv- 


ing against his own light and is impenitent; if he 
does not believe in spiritual help, nor attempt to 
be receptive of it—then he will gain nothing from 
the Communion, except harm. Nor are the bene- 
fits necessarily marked by any rise in the recipi- 
ent’s spiritual temperature. He may leave the 


Table feeling life as hard as when he came. But, 


nevertheless, he will of necessity be a stronger 
man: for this kind of aid usually comes without 
observation. When we have been ill, and are 
sent away to the mountains, or the sea, it is often 
quite a while before we feel physical invigoration. 
T’or days we may be as listless and languid as 
before. But we are breathing God’s fresh air 
and bathing in God’s sunshine—and, unfelt by 
ourselves, our bodies are recovering their tone, 


‘until, in due time, we are able to take up life’s 
burdens again. The parallel between the physi- 





160 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


cal and the spiritual world is often exact and 
illuminating. No sincere, penitent and strength- 

seeking soul ever partook in faith of the Sacra- — 
ment without being strengthened with might by 
God’s spirit in the inner man. Not, indeed, that — 
there is any magical power possessed by the 

“creaturely elements.” They remain bread and 
wine, and nothing else. But they become the 
physical agents by which spiritual thoughts, and 
thus spiritual forces, are let loose in the mind. 
The physical is the necessary servant of the spir- 
itual—except, it may be, in the moments of pure 
illumination, which the mystics achieve. Even 
the influence of the Word is mediated by the 
physical. We need the printed page, communi- 
cated by light-rays to the optic nerve and thence 
to the brain, before ideas, which can liberate our 
wills, penetrate to the mind. Similarly, the bread 
and wine are the agents whereby the mind is so 
stirred that we may, in spiritual wise, partake of 
the Body and Blood of Christ. But, if they are 
rightly used, the communication of spiritual 
power is bound to be secured. We have nothing 
to do with its movement into our hearts, That 
is God’s business. And that is why the Sacra 

ment is an occasion of so great rest and so great 


THE SACRAMENT 161 


hope. It is not, indeed, the only means of grace. 
God uses the Word, or sickness, or bereavement, 
or human love, to communicate His strength. 
But of all ordinary means of grace it is the chief. 





CHAPTER VII. 


THE CELEBRATION OF THE SACRAMENT, 


- ee ee 


HAT, then, are we to do with an act of © 


worship so full of the vital spark as this? 


; 
DP 


How can we best use a gift so rich and rare — 


The Church has given various answers; but we — 
may question whether any of our practices are — 
wholly satisfactory. We are confined, of course, — 


within the Reformed tradition, and that develop- 


ment of the Supper into “the drama of divine — 


love and sorrow” called the Mass is beyond our 


purview. But, even in our branches of the 
Church, variations of practice have been consid- 


erable; and our immediate business is to discuss 


these to see if we cannot come to a greater uni- — 
formity, or, at least, agree upon the limits within — 


which variations are desirable. 


I. 


(a) The first question that presents itself is as 


to the frequency of celebration. What we may 
162 











CKLEBRATION OF SACRAMENT 1638 


call the Highland Presbyterian and the Anglican 
tradition stand at opposite poles in this respect. 
For the Anglican, the Table is always ready; for 
the Highland Presbyterian, it is spread, at most, 
twice a year. Which of these is more likely to 
secure the benefits of Communion? 

The difficulty of giving an unequivocal answer 
is due to the fact, emphasized in the previous 
chapter, that the Sacrament is both individual 
and communal in its meaning. If we are to em- 
phasize the latter aspect, celebration should not 
be frequent; if the former, it should be as fre- 
quent as possible. It is curious, by the way, to 
observe that the Presbyterian * practice is much 
more churchly than the Anglican. We shall 

have occasion to glance at this difference again 
_ in a moment or two; and here we simply note it 
to bea fact. If the Presbyterian use is to be fol- 
lowed, rarity is essential: for great public cere- 
- monials, intended to express the common life of 
a society, lose their vitality and power of impact, 
if they come at too brief intervals. The modern 
habit of having Communion, after our manner, 
as often as once a month seems to me the worst 


* Congregationalists and other friends will forgive the ecclesi- 
__astical adjective. I use it for convenience and “as in private 
_ duty bound.” 


164 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


possible of compromises, It is not nearly fre- 
quent enough to meet individual needs, and is too 
frequent to keep impressiveness as a Church 
festival. 

(b) The manner of celebration is also a diffi- 
culty, arising from the same source. The Angl- 
can mode, whereby each communicant advances 
to the altar and receives the elements separately, 
emphasizes the individual meaning: while the 
Presbyterian mode, in which the whole of the 
membership remains seated, as if around a com- 
mon Table, and is served by elders, suggests 
especially the communal aspect of the Supper. 
Which of these is better—for both are right? If 


we can have only one, the question as to which © 


should be retained provides a nice problem. 

But is it necessary to make a choice? Cannot 
both be retained? ‘The solution, I think, is to 
have great churchly Communions very rarely— 
probably not oftener than twice a year, and at 
these to use the Presbyterian mode: and to have 
very frequent Communions, in which the indi- 


vidual aspect is emphasized, either before the © 
morning or after the evening service, and at these — 
to use the Anglican mode. We do not want to — 


weaken the dignified strength of the great sacra- 








CELEBRATION OF SACRAMENT 165 


mental seasons: but there is no good reason for 
depriving struggling souls of any help they can 
get from the Table, by never having it prepared 
for them when they need it. So, why not combine 
both methods, in the way suggested above? 


No one who has ever seen a Communion Serv- - 


ice in a great Scottish church will ever want to 
see the practice lost, or in any way cheapened by 
being made ordinary. One piece of symbolism, 
in frequent use in Scotland, is not, I think, copied 
on the Western side of the Atlantic. In the 
churches of the Old Land, the pews are provided 
with book-boards, and these, in addition to the 
Communion Table, are covered with white cloths 
specially made to fit them—or, at least, those 
attached to pews in which communicants are to 
sit. Intending participants take their places at 
the beginning of morning worship, thereby avoid- 
ing the unseemly shifting of seats, that sometimes 
occurs immediately before the celebration proper. 
The sight of a church thus covered in white is 
singularly impressive. Each child is sitting at 
His Father’s board—each in his own place—each 
an indispensable member of the great family. 
When, amid the stillness, the bread and the cup 
are handed from one to another, the sense of the 


166 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


brotherhood of the Church is sometimes extraor- 
dinarily vivid. It is inconceivable that a practice 
so rich in meaning should be given up. But 
clearly, its power depends in part on its rarity: 
if for no other reason than that infrequency 
brings out a large proportion of the members. 
Communion of this sort should be attended by the 
whole available membership. In the old days, 
these occasions were surrounded by auxiliary 
services. I‘rom Thursday to Monday the com- 
munity went into retreat: business came to stand- 
still: each day became a Sabbath. It is, doubt- 
less, impossible, even if it were desirable, to re- 
turn to these practices: but, it is not impossible, 
if Communions of this kind occur only twice a 
year, to precede them with a week of special eve- 
ning meetings. Modern communities need to go 
into retreat at least as badly as those of former 
generations—a need which is acknowledged in 
the development of services during Holy Week. 
It may reasonably be contended that the Com- 
munion would not only gain in significance, if 
this were done; but that the membership of the 
Church would rapidly incline to keep the preced- 
ing week free to attend preparatory services— 
to the great gain of everybody concerned. 


| 
; 
| 








CELEBRATION OF SACRAMENT 167 


And what is there in our principles which pre- 
vents us from affording frequent opportunities 
for individuals to covenant? There is a tempera- 
ment which is particularly susceptible to symbol, 
and eager for sacramental worship. There is no 
reason, at all, that I can see, why we should force 
these into the fellowship of other Churches, by 
denying them help which the Communion is spe- 
cially designed to afford. It is quite a simple 
thing to arrange a small room as a chapel, and 
to allow any member, who is in need, quickly to 
come and throw himself anew on God’s promise 
of aid. If, on these occasions, we adopt the 
Anglican mode, we are not only making the act 
- more effective from the individual point of view, 
but we are doing something, perhaps, to build a 
bridge over the gulf which separates us—for the 
perpetuation of our unfortunate divisions is due 
to differences in forms of worship, to a greater 
degree than we imagine. At any rate, it is a 
suggestion worth considering. As things are, we 
_ Jose by not meeting the individual’s sudden need 
or desire. A friend, who has adopted the double 
practice, tells me that he has found that young 
- men, who had given up attendance at the stated 
Communions, avail themselves of the quieter and 


168 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


more private occasions, On the other hand, I am 
sure the Anglicans lose by never having great 
churchly celebrations of our type. Is it too much 
to hope that we may learn from one another? 

(c) A third problem lies in the determination 
of those who shall come to the Communion. 'Too 
great ease and too great difficulty of access are 
both evils. Scotsmen know how hesitatingly the 
Highlander approaches the Table. He has got 
it into his head that only the elect may dare to lift 
the sacred emblems. His deep-seated reverence, 
and the spirit of fearfulness engendered among 
the mountains and the mists, hold him back. He 
is slow to believe that the gifts are there for sin- 
ners to take. His attitude, however, is greatly 
to be preferred to the heedlessness which sets the 
privilege free to anybody, anywhere and at any 
time. I have heard (but find it difficult to credit) 
than in some of our churches the Sacrament is 
given to children of very tender years, who have 
made no profession of faith. The only possible 
justification for a practice of this sort would be 
a belief in transubstantiation. It is done, I un- 
derstand, in Roman churches logically enough: 
but that it should obtain in churches that pride 
themselves on their modern liberalism only shows 


— a a ee 





CELEBRATION OF SACRAMENT 169 


how little the evangelic meaning of the Sacra- 
ment is understood. Participation in Commun- 
ion should be the pledge of discipleship; and, 
consequently, it should not be encouraged too 
-early. Children, of course, develop very differ- 
ently: but, on the average, the age of sixteen is 
young enough. A catechumen ought to be suffi- 
ciently old to realize the moral struggle and to 
appreciate the reality of religion: and young chil- 
dren have not sufficient “‘years of discretion” for 
that. The period of later adolescence, between 
sixteen and twenty-one years of age, seems to be 
the appointed time. 

The question of the moral qualifications for 
communicating is far more difficult. In old days, 
the Table was “‘fenced”’: indeed, it still is, in some 
places. A barrier was placed round it against 
heretics and sinners: and the authority for the 
practice was found in Scripture. St. Paul is 
clear as to the dangers of “eating and drinking 
-unworthily.” Perhaps the distinction may be put 
this way—those who are in sober earnest about 
breaking from sin should come: while those who 
are content to go on sinning should stay away. | 
God offers help to those who are sufficiently in 
earnest to help themselves. If we come to co- 


170 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


operate with God, then we are welcome. If we 
come purely sentimentally, or on the off-chance 
that some spiritual electric-shock will strike us, 
whereby we shall find it easy to be good ever 


after, we had better stay away. The Table is ~ 


spread for sinners unquestionably: but they must 
be sinners who would be made whole. It is not 
sin, but contentment in sin, that is the barrier. 


Penitence and the stirring of hunger and thirst — 
after freedom take the fence away: and we, — 
fallen, baffled, tattered, ashamed, are called to — 
the place of God’s refreshing and to the Table of — 


His love. 


oe 


Considerations such as these make it clear how — 


important it is to give instruction about the Sac- 
rament, before young communicants are ad- 


mitted. It is sometimes difficult to get them to — 


attend classes; but every effort should be made 
to secure the codperation of parents and teachers 
that they may be encouraged to come. A gather- 
ing once a week for at least four weeks, prior to 
admission, is a minimum: and, if the minister can 
manage it, he should see each catechumen pri- 
vately as well. It may be that the scheme of 


a A 





CELEBRATION OF SACRAMENT 171 


meanings in the previous chapter will be found 
useful for communicants’ classes, At any rate, 
some carefully thought-out plan of instruction 
must be discovered, and only in rare and special 
cases should anyone be admitted who has not 
been taught in detail. Ignorance is the main 
danger of Christianity: and if members of the 
Church are ignorant of their own chief act of 
worship, the condition of the Church is perilous 
indeed. 

It is not at all a bad plan to turn the whole con- 
gregation into a communicants’ class every now 
and then. Two Sunday mornings every year 
spent on the meanings of the Sacrament are 
profitably used. Thereby, young communicants 
are reached: and their seniors are reminded of 
what they may have forgotten. Every minister, 
of course, must devise his own means for educat- 
ing his congregation; but none of us should ever 
forget that steady and painstaking teaching is 
the unvarying condition of effective sacramental 
' seasons. 


Iil, 


The actual celebration of Holy Communion 
should aim at two things—simplicity and silence. 


172 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


No pains are too great to secure that all shall be 
done decently and in order. The minister will 
study the historic prayers of the Communion, 
and will watch that he omits no element—never 
forgetting the prayer of consecration before he 
administers. Minister and elders together will 
think out every arrangement, with the utmost 
care—if necessary, they will practise together— 


so that there will be no hitches or whispered con- — 


sultations during the service itself. I once was 
at a Communion, the discomfort of which is in 
my mind to this day. The office-bearers became 


confused, and began to call to each other from ~ 
opposite aisles to send cups or platters here or — 
there. It made you feel ashamed—and all for — 
the lack of preparation. When new churches are : 
built, architects should be invited to consider the — 
necessity of aisles so placed that the carrying of | 
the bread and wine will be easy. Incidentally, : 
all such churches will have a Communion Table — 
and a Font as permanent furnishings. In our 4 
older churches, these are brought in as the occa- r 
sion demands, with the result that, on an ordi- — 
nary day, there is nothing to suggest that such . 
churches are Christian temples. They are merely § 


’ 


rage. 








CELEBRATION OF SACRAMENT 173 


meeting-houses, with no indication of what sect 
or society uses them. 

The practical problems of celebration have 
been increased by the modern innovation of the 
individual cups. I suppose it is too late to pro- 
test against them. Once this hygienic microbe 
gets into our mental systems, there is no stopping 
it: but one is inclined to enquire whether insur- 
ance companies ask higher premiums from 
Roman Catholics and Anglicans than they do, 
say, from Congregationalists. It would be scien- 
tifically interesting to discover whether there is 
an appreciably higher rate of mortality in their 
membership, which can be reasonably traced to 
their use of the common cup. When a man re- 
members the stately stillness of some older Com- 
munions, he wishes he did not live in so enlight- 
ened, so progressive and (let us add) so jumpy 
an age. However, as I say, the thing is past 
praying for. But we must realize that thereby 
our difficulties in securing stillness and smooth- 
ness in administration are increased. The tinkle 
of the cups: the contortions of those who drink 
from them: the return of trays to their appointed 
-place—all these detract from the ordered quiet, 
which means so much. Many must have found it 


174 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


necessary, as I have done, to ask the organist to 
play softly during the passage of the cups: and 
that is a bad second best. I may add that, per- 
sonally, I extremely dislike the plan whereby the 
communicants hold the bread and wine until all 
have been served and then partake at the same 
moment. It cuts at the root of the solitary — 
covenant—which is so important a meaning of 
the Sacrament. For the rest, we must do the 
best we can; it will not be so bad for those who 
have never known anything better. 

The common cup, however, should always be © 
on the Communion Table, and the minister should — 
use it when reading the Scripture warrant. See- — 
ing that the whole Sacrament is a symbolism, he 
should be very careful about all the symbolic acts. — 
An unbroken slice of bread should be ready to — 
his hand, which he will break in the sight of the — 
people; he should lift the Cup high when he © 
utters the words “this cup is the new covenant in ~ 
my blood.” ‘These little things add so much. 
Nothing is too slight or too immaterial to be 
negligible. Every arrangement, every detail 
should be given all the reverent care at our com- 
mand; for the Supper may be the simplest meal 
in the world, but it is a Supper with the King. 








CHAPTER VIII. 
THE GUIDANCE OF THE WISE. 


NE of the most charming pictures that 
comes down to us from long ago is that of 

a certain chubby little monk sitting smiling “in 
his little corner with his little book.” For the 
-~monk was Thomas a Kempis: and if his “little 
- book” could make that master of sorrows smile, 
it had proved that literature helps us “‘to enjoy 
life or to endure. it,” before Dr. J ohnson thus 
phrased its purposes. As we conclude these 
_ studies, let us follow the old monk’s example and 
retire into a corner with a book or two, not that 
--we may either enjoy life or endure it, but that we 
may obtain guidance from the wise as to how we 
should bear ourselves as ministers, The sages of 
-many generations are ready and waiting to help 
-us: and if ever men needed help, we are those 
‘men, Wherefore, let us take down a few of their 
volumes from our shelves, and, as we turn the 


pages, let them speak to us, who have the right. 
| 175 


176 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 
1. The Call to the Mimstry. 
And first let us ask ourselves whether we have 

any right to be in the ministry at all. Is there 

any infallible mark or sign of the selected man? 

Well, I think we can get one valuable hint in this — 

obiter dictum of Principal Dykes,—*The noblest 

passion, that can beat in the heart of a man, is— 

the passion to deliver.” A man who would be a 

minister is one who has been caught by that high | 

enthusiasm, and who gives himself no peace un-— 
less he is doing something to help the helpless. 

The clamant need of men for healing, and the 

desire to satisfy it, stir him continually to an— 

urgent restlessness. 
“T slumber not—the thorn is in my couch, 
Each day a trumpet soundeth in my ear, 
Its echo in my heart.” 

As a result, he gives willing assent to the famous 

utterance of F. W. H. Myers, “Remember, that, 

first of all, a man must, from the torpor of a foul 
tranquility, have his soul delivered unto war.” 

And, as far as he knows his own heart, he must 

be able to say that the longing to deliver has 

caught him for good. “It is not the strength, but 
the duration, of great sentiments,” says Niets- 
zche, “that maketh great men.” The quality of — 





GUIDANCE OF THE WISE 177 


adherence, which Browning calls devotedness 

(“devotedness, in short, which I account the ulti- 

mate in man”) is as necessary as enthusiasm. 
_ Other characteristics, doubtless, are desirable be- 
_ fore a man becomes a leader in worship: but if he 
can honestly say that, as far as he understands 
himself, he is devoted to the task of deliverance, 
_he has one good ground, at any rate, for believing 
_ that his call to the ministry is authentic. 





2. The Minster as a Friend. 


People are only delivered, as a rule,.by those 
that love them. In the Christian realm this is 
always true. Jesus was a Saviour, because He 
was a friend of publicans and sinners. Where- 
fore, a minister will cultivate his genius for 
friendship, and thank God for its possession. It 
| is a curious as well as a supreme gift: and I know 

not what can be rightly said about it. You never 

can say much about hidden things like friendship, 
for they defy analysis. You can simply know » 
them and give God the praise. But this, at least, 





we affirm—friendship cannot dwell with scorn. 
Wherefore, a minister will cleanse his heart and 
mind of all that is disdainful of any of his people. 
He must have his eyes open to their nobility. He 


178 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


must respect them. He must see the kingly in 
them. Indeed, he has good reason so to do: for — 
God lives in them all, especially, perhaps, in the © 
inconspicuous and the drab. Mr. Noyes sings it — 
worthily. 
“Leaders unknown of hopes forlorn 
Go past us in the daily mart, 
With many a shadow crown of thorn 
And many a kingly broken heart.” 
We shall, therefore, keep free from all censorious, j 
critical, contemptuous thoughts of our people, as — 
far as in us lies, knowing that disdain is the eldest — 
daughter of the Queen of Sins. Robert Bridges — 
has a good word when he writes— 4 


“Earth hath no sin but thine 
Dull eye of scorn: 
O’er thee the sun doth pine, 
And angels mourn.” 
If our people act unworthily, we shall try to pity 
them as a doctor pities a sick child. And if they — 
act meanly to us, let us keep in our hearts this © 
wisdom from William Blake, “Friendship cannot — 
exist without the forgiveness of sins continually.” | 
Moreover, we must rejoice greatly in their affec- 
tion for us and keep it as a treasure and a prize, 
not forgetting that one of the most charming of 
writers has said that, ‘““The world has a million | 











GUIDANCE OF THE WISE 179 


roosts for a man, but only one nest.” Oliver 


- Wendell Holmes would be the first to agree that 
a minister who found a nest among his people 


was a minister who had succeeded. For with the 


_ gift of friendship goes the gift of trust, and “To 


know someone we love believes in us is the finest 
incentive to becoming worthier of such a faith,” 
as Richard King has it in his “Confessions of an 
Average Man.” And, if trial comes to us, we 


_ may see in it a chance of the prize of learning 


friendship in its truth and depth. There is a fine 


old Scots proverb that is worth our pondering, 


“Nae man can be happy without a friend, nor 


sure of him till he’s unhappy.” At any rate, 


_ Jeremy Bentham was right when he said, “If you 


_ would gain mankind the best way is to appear to 


love them, and the best way of appearing to love 
them is to love them in reality.” The chance to 
show that we love them will come best in their 
times of trouble,—concerning which a word of 
warning comes from Madagascar, where they 
have this admirable proverb, “Sorrow I can bear, 
but not the professional mourner.” But, above 
all, let us reflect on this from George Macdonald, 


“°’Tis but as men draw nigh to Thee, My Lord, 
They can draw nigh each other and not hurt.” 


180 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


8. The Minister as a Leader. 


All ministers aspire to leadership in the com- 
munity; more’s the pity, sometimes. But, in the 
sphere of their own congregations they are called 
upon to lead, though without arrogance. Upon 
this matter let us set down, first, an admirable 
statement by that great Englishman, Lord Mor- 
ley, who knew what leading meant. “The deci- 
sive sign of the elevation of a nation’s life is to be 
sought among those who lead or ought to lead, 
and in the action of those whom it accepts or 
chooses to be its chiefs.” The responsibility 
thrown on us, therefore, is severe. Leadership is 
greatly prized, especially in a democracy, where 


it is alleged to go not by favour, but by merit. In © 


the ministry, however, it comes by virtue of a 
position; we are among those to whom much is 
given and from whom, consequently and reason- 
ably, much is required. The “communal obliga- 
tion,” which goes so deep, is laid upon us: and, if 
we fail our people in matters of common recti- 
tude, the memory will haunt us to the end of the 
journey. However many excuses they make for 
us, we shall never be able to excuse ourselves. 
For we shall be continually afraid that failure in 


Cie ee ee 





GUIDANCE OF THE WISE 181 


other lives is directly to be traced to our own. 
Christina Rossetti expresses the inner anger of 
many a minister’s heart when she writes, 

“Clearly his own fault. Yet, I think, 


My fault in part, who did not pray 
But lagged and would not lead the way.” 


Moreover, ministerial leadership must never be 
selfish. It must be leadership inspired by the 
passion to deliver. Diotrephes, who loved the 
preeminence, would have made the worst kind of 
minister—although a kind that is painfully com- 
mon, We need to listen to Miss Rossetti again, 
“Not to be first: how hard to learn 
That life-long lesson of the past, 


Line graven on line and stroke on stroke— 
But, thank God, learned at last.” 


These things are, of course, basal; and they are, 
I make no doubt, clearly in our minds; and we 
_ mean to achieve them by God’s grace, which can 
_ do marvelous things. But there are minor mat- 
ters, which have their own importance, and are 
more easily forgotten. ‘The minor may be only 
the major on a small scale. Courtesy, for in- 
stance, is an outgrowth of love: suffering fools, as 
| gladly as circumstances permit, is the natural 
_ attitude of a man who desires to deliver: patience 





182. PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


with the unreasonable is the sign of a heart of 
generous sympathy. Wherefore, we may not 
neglect the insignificant things of conduct, if we 
aspire to leadership. “It is the little things,” Dr. 
Dykes used to say, “that spoil most ministeries.” 
Take care of the pennies of gentleness and win- 
someness, and the pounds of leadership will look 
after themselves. Thus, watch things hke good 
nature, tact (“tact is the gift of doing the right 
thing in place of the obvious,” remarks Mr. Shane 
Leslie), and above all equanimity in controversy. 
In “Penelope’s Experiences in Scotland,” Mrs. 
Wiggin makes one of her characters describe a 7 


friend as being “very like that young man who, ~ 


whenever he engaged in controversy, seemed to _ 
take off his flesh and sit in his nerves.” We all — 
know that youth, and how distressing he becomes _ 


when he retains his unpleasant skill in undressing _ 
into later years. It is, of course, inevitable that 


we shall be engaged in disputes: and a really — 
great ecclesiastical controversy is a most exhil- — 
arating thing. But it must be kept on a high 
level. The lesser disputes, into which we are 
sometimes dragged, are not only unnecessary, but 
indecent; and would never develop if we only 
kept our flesh over our nerves. After all, “what 








GUIDANCE OF THE WISE = 183 


ean be more honourable to a man than to be 
charged with an excess of good-nature,” as John 
Firth gives it in his translation of the Younger 
Pliny. And as far as our own congregation is 
concerned, let us take to heart Tennyson’s line, 
“The King who fights his people, fights himself.” 
But the main point about leadership is that it 
should be leadership. The leader should be in the 
van,—ahead of his people in belief, in hope, nm 
energy. The remark of Dr. Whyte who was 
endeavouring to revitalize the congregational 
prayer-meeting, which had become somewhat 
half-hearted, is worth calling to mind: “I put a 
lot of steam into it,” he said. At any rate, let 
there be clearly written, where it can be seen 
every day, this reflection from “The Road to 
Rannoch” by Dr. Barnett, “The true principle 
of sport may be summed up in the words, Do it 
yourself.” 


4. The Minister and Things Marginal. 


In this matter of being a leader, or a pastor, or 
a preacher, or just a man, we shall often be faced 
_ by things marginal. Irritating, perplexing, per- 
turbing things they are. By them I mean all 
_ those practices, habits, attitudes or indulgences 


184 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


which are legitimate, but not always expedient. 
And in respect of them, let us be commended to 
the god of common sense, of whom we all stand 
in need: some of us, alas! more than others. That 
they are permissible, and even useful, is suggested 
by William Pitt’s outburst, “Don’t tell me of a 
man’s being able to talk sense. Every one can 
talk sense; can he talk nonsense?” And Mr. 
Shane Leslie carries the matter further when he 
remarks, “Only the idealist continues to be an un- 
dergraduate through life.” But that here we are 
dealing with a marginal area, in which it be- 
hooves us to walk circumspectly, is shown by Dr. 
Johnson’s attitude to the merriment of parsons. 
We shall not be ill-guided if we go to three very 
different men, who look at the thing from very 
different angles. George Herbert, who was not 
much troubled with the marginal, inclines to the 
side of safety, which, I daresay, is the best side 
for us all, 
“Who keeps no guard upon himself is slack 
And rots to nothing at the next great thaw.” 

Marcus Aurelius, also I should imagine a non- 
marginal man, puts a familiar and very sound ~ 
principle freshly when he writes, “That which is — 
not good for the swarm neither is it good for the 








GUIDANCE OF THE WISE 185 


99 


bee.” But the happiest, and the tenderest and 
the most sympathetic advice comes from Mr. G. 
K. Chesterton, who possibly knows more about 
margins than the other two. Says he, “Our wis- 
dom, whether expressed in private or public, be- 
longs to the world, but our folly belongs to those 
we love.” 


5. The Minister in the Pulpit. 


But, after all, our main task is in the pulpit; 
and though we have spent some time considering 
some aspects of that matter, let us see if we can 
cull some flowerlets of wisdom upon it from the 
sages. Dr. John Ker (a man of genius, whose 
writings should be more widely known than they 
are) points out that “Preaching, or regular re- 
_ligious instruction, is peculiar to Christianity,” 
and that within the church, “Protestantism, as 
- compared with Romanism, is the religion of pub- 
lic speech.”” “The church,” he adds, “that cannot 
and will not preach, and preach well, must go 
down.” The fact is that in preaching a man is, in 
a particular way, meeting an obligation which is 
meant to be incumbent on all men. We owe the 
statement to E;pictetus that “God has introduced 
man to be a spectator of God and His works: and 


186 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


not only a spectator of them, but an interpreter.” — 
Whether that is the function of all men or not, it — 
is certainly the function of the preacher. God — 
has, unquestionably, introduced him into the — 
world to be an interpreter. But because he is an _ 
interpreter in a pulpit, his task is a hazardous one. — 
“The great danger of a platform orator’s career 
is that it may in time lessen a man’s moral self- — 
possession,’ is Lord Morley’s comment: and the | 
pulpit is not so far removed from the platform — 
that it can feel safe. Wherefore, we must be very | 
watchful about honesty. While we are careful to — 
distinguish between our prejudices and our prin- — 
ciples, and to prevent the bee that buzzes in our — 
bonnets from buzzing in our sermons, we will © 
do well to remember our last-quoted authority — 
when he says, “He who begins life by stifling his — 
convictions is in a fair way to ending it with no | 
convictions to stifle.’ And with moral earnest- 
ness and honestly we will place thought. Good 
hard thinking, up to our conceivable height, is the 
foundation-stone of every sermon that is worth 
while. Charles Spurgeon phrased it pithily when 
he wrote, “Weigh your sermons. Do not retail 
them by the yard, but deal them out by the 
pound.” Along with all this we must try to sug- 


GUIDANCE OF THE WISE 187 


) gest a sense of mystery, and of our own inade- 
_quacy. So to do is, indeed, an aspect of honesty. 
“It was necessary,” said Aquinas, “for certain 
things, to be proposed to man from God that alto- 
gether exceeded his understanding,” and a due 
admission that we are not omniscient should be 
_ observable in our words and in our manner. And 
that word “manner” suggests many reflections. 
No man can compute the number of sermons that 
are spoiled in their setting-out: by gesture (try 
to suit the action to the word, or, for pity’s sake, 
refrain from action), or by a queer, unnatural 
voice. “Moreover, brethren, avoid the use of the 
nose as an organ of speech, for the best authorities 
are agreed that it is intended to smell with.” 
_ “Why speak so as to be heard in the street when 
_ there is nobody there who is listening to you?” 
Thus, with homely sense, counsels Spurgeon. 
_ Even clothes are not unimportant. Richard King 
- somewhere remarks, “Clothes were evolved in 
order that many of us might look more impressive 
than we really are.”’ On the other hand, minis- 
_ terial garb, while adding impressiveness (if neces- 
sary), helps to sink the man in his office: and, 
anything that can do that is to be encouraged. 
But, to move upward a little to the matter of 





f 


188 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


style, Schleiermacher has a good thing upon that — 
when he says, “The speech of the pulpit should — 
have for its basis the language of the Bible.” 
_ Even if that advice needs some qualifications it is ~ 
not bad advice for a young minister. A man, 

however, may be too careful about the form. “He | 
who takes overmuch thought for his style is in 
danger of losing the way to excellence,’ com- 
ments Sir Edward Cook: and he adds, ““When ~ 
there is perfect sincerity, the art, however mag- 
nificent, is never visible—the passion and the 
truth hide it.” The main thing is to be simple 
and clear, remembering that simplicity and clar- | 
ity are the friends, and not the enemies, of beauty. — 
Victor Hugo’s epigram that “The beautiful is as — 
useful as the useful, perhaps more so,” is as ap-— 
plicable to preaching as to anything else. But 
these are not the chief matters. What we have to 
seek most of all is the instinct of sympathy. “I 
sat where they sat,” claimed Ezekiel. “Expose 
thyself to feel what wretches feel,” advised 
Shakespeare. Indeed, we do not need to expose 
ourselves. We “ken by oorsel’s.”” Honest deal- 
ing with our own painful need will bring an un- 
dertone of fellow-feeling into our sermons: and 
will save us from that talking down, as if from a 















GUIDANCE OF THE WISE _ 189 


lofty moral plane, which is at once useless and 
Insincere. ‘Tennyson’s line, “It is better to fight 
for the good than to rail at the ill,” gives a valu- 
_able hint for our pulpit work. It is to be hoped 
that, up to our measure, the same thing can be 
said about us as was said about Gladstone, “He 
knew men well enough, at least to have found out 
that none gains such an ascendance over them as 
he who appeals to what is the nobler part of 
human nature.” And, with sympathy, let 
urgency go hand in hand. We should often quote 
to ourselves the familiar lmes in Myers’ “St. 
Paul” beginnng— 

: “Oft when the Word is on me to deliver 

Lifts the illusion and the truth lies bare; 


Desert or throng, the city or the river, 
Melts in a lucid Paradise of air,—” 


) But the whole secret of effective preaching is 
‘contained in the amazing compliment paid to 
John Brown of Haddington by David Hume, 


“Yhat’s the man for me, he means what he says: 
he speaks as if Jesus was at his elbow.” 


6. The Minister as a Pilgrim. 


It is, I think, Mr. Housman who remarks in 
lan introduction to some classical work that, 


199 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 







amidst all the perplexities of our earthly lot, one 
point stands clear: “Life is no feather-bed for 
sluggards to lie in.” You remember how Sir 
Walter Scott was delighted with the description — 
given of herself by an old beggar woman, “A’m 
just an auld struggler.” Stevenson has put the 
same idea into Doric verse,— 

“My bonny man, the world it’s true 


Was made for neither me nor you: 
It’s just a place to warstle through.” 


And Francis Thompson, more lugubriously, has 
reéchoed the Scriptural writer’s opinion that man ~ 
is born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards,— = 
“Nothing begins and nothing ends 
That is not paid with a moan; 


For we are born in other’s pain 
And perish in our own.” 


Now, from this general fate ministers are not 
exempt. On the contrary. To begin with, they” 
will probably be poor; economic conditions there- 
by cooperating with Providence to keep them” 
humble. They are likely to have a lot of irritat- 
ing, peddling sort of work to do. ‘They certainly 
will have plenty of exercise in the wearisome art — 
of smoothing ruffled feathers. And, in addition, — 
they will have to look after themselves, remem- 


GUIDANCE OF THE WISE #191 


bering that a city that is set on a hill cannot, alas! 
be hid. Each profession, as a clever lady sug- 
gested, has its métier. “A soldier’s métier is to 
_be brave: a solicitor’s to be honest: and a minis- 
ter’s to be good.” It is only another way of say- 
ing that a bishop’s business is to be an example to 
the flock and that he therefore has to be more 
careful than the next man, especially if he be red- 
blooded. ‘There is no escape from the insistent 
challenge of our métier. Even getting out of 
clerical clothes, according to the (as I think) 
rather regrettable custom of the New World, 
will not deliver us. We are definitely faced with 
_a terribly testing life, and the only thing to do is 
to face it, even if we feel that it involves restraints 
that are unreasonable. After all, life’s restric- 
tions are God’s will. We remember our Brown- 
ing:— 
| “We are in God’s hand, 
How strange now looks the life He makes us lead; 


So free we seem, so fettered fast we are: 
I feel He laid the fetter, let it lie.” 


Moreover (for we may as well look at the worst 
of it), it is just as well to realize that it is not at 
the beginning that life’s.road-way blisters our 
feet. “Morning never tries you till the after- 
noon,” says Kipling. Still less does life unfold 





192 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD : 


2} 
its harshness in advance; which is the reason why { 
he that putteth on his armour is more inclined to _ 
boast than he that putteth it off. “He’s a grand : 
man for an expedition tomorrow,’ is apt to be a — 
true description of most of us. Dr. Barbour — 
records that a young minister fresh from a con- _ 
ference on the deepening of spiritual life, once . 
came into Dr. Whyte’s study and spoke of his — 
experiences with rapture, just as if the New i 
Jerusalem had come. “Aye,” said Dr. Whyte — 
“it’s a sair fecht up to the very last.” Well, there — 
is nothing for it but to admit that life is a grave — 
business. “To Rossetti,” says Walter Pater, 
“life is a crisis at every moment. A sustained — 
impressibility towards the mysterious conditions — 
of man’s everyday life, towards the very mystery © 
itself in it, gives a singular gravity to all his— 
work.” ‘This, at least, is one of the “treasures of q 
darkness” we may mine from life’s harshness. If 
it lends a “singular gravity” to our conduct of ’ 
worship, our discipline will not have been unfruit- — 
ful. After all, we may allow Marcus Aurelius to 
comfort us when he says that, “Nothing happens | 
to any man which he is not found by nature tdi 
bear,” and we may also remember that it is possi-— 























ble to “turn our necessities to glorious gain’’: it is 


GUIDANCE OF THE WISE = 193 







possible to be more than conquerors. We have 
the unfailing witness of the saints to the good that 
always resides in the heart of pain. And if our 
trials be temptations, the same thought comes to 
sustain :— 


“Why comes temptation but for man to meet 
And master and make crouch beneath his feet, 
And so be pedestalled in triumph?” 


‘Whatever happens, endure: and that without too 
‘much introspection. Lady Gwendollen Cecil 
‘tells us that her father, Lord Salisbury, “used to 
quote with approval Kingsley’s dictum, that a 
man wins a boat-race by pulling hard and not by 
stopping to feel his muscles.” It is sound advice. 
After all, we are not called upon to endure for- 
ever. So “stand up, stand up for Jesus: the fight 
will not be long.’ But, meantime, there is the 
‘sound of battle and the alarm of war in these 
wayward hearts of ours: let us respond as gal- 
lantly as we can. Dr. Carroll in his commentaries 
-on Dante reminds us that, “To love the good 
without fulfilling it in duty is to create within the 
‘soul the night in which no man can work.” I 
once picked up an anonymous poem in an 
English magazine, one verse of which has stuck 


194 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


in my mind ever since. It suggests the tru 
knightly attitude, in all this business, 


“The world says, Promise little and no thought 
Of faith unfaithful holds you from your sleep. 
So rots the world. Nay, rather be it yours 
To promise greatly and your promise keep.” 







This is a word specially needed by ministers: an 
that we may heed it, let me give a piece of advice, 
—keep at your elbow a copy of the poems of tha 
strange, strong woman, so “human at the red 
ripe of the heart,” Christina Rossetti, and pra 
some of her prayers after her. As, for instance 
this :— 
“God harden me against myself, 


This coward with pathetic voice 
Who craves for ease, and rest, and joys.” 


And every now and then stretch out a hesitating 
hand to Richard Baxter, that terrible man, with 
his searchlight focused on our need. You re- 
member the kind of warning he rings out, as thus: 
“Believe it, brethren, God never saved any man. 
for being a preacher, nor because he was an able 
preacher; but because he was a justified, sancti- 
fied man, and consequently faithful in his Mas@ 
ter’s work.” Or thus: “The work may be God’s, 
and yet we may do it. not for God, but for aud 
. 


é 


. 
; 


GUIDANCE OF THE WISE = 195 


tselves. I confess I feel such continual danger on 
this point, that if I do not watch, lest I should 
‘study for myself, and preach for myself, and 
‘write for myself, rather than for Christ, I should 
‘soon miscarry.” And turn back to Miss Rossetti 
again to find this comforting and satisfying dia- 
Jogue between God and your soul,— 





“Lord, carry me.—Nay; but I grant thee strength 
To walk and work thy way to heaven at length.” 


A man has a chance of winning through, when at 
| Jast and finally he leans back on God. “Human 
} wisdom has reached its furthest point when it 
gets to say, I do not know—God knows,” says 
Dr. Brown in the “Horae Subsecivae.” And 
human power has reached its height when it says, 
“Lord I cannot, but Thou canst.” 


7. The Minister as an Optimist, 


_ Someone has happily called the Apostle Paul 
| the theologian of hope. He has, at any rate, 
| struck out a significant phrase, when he speaks 
of “the hope that saves.” ‘This is the word that 
comes back to the world from Goethe’s marching 
heroes: “We bid you,” they ery, “to hope.” 
Wherefore, let us make our mental companion- 





196 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 

















ship with those who have proved that victory can-§ 
not only be won, but can be splendid. Those ar 
noble words, taken from a speech of his own t 
students, that are inscribed on Mr. Gladstone’ 
tombstone in Hawarden Church: “Be inspire 
with the belief that life is a great and noble call: 
ing; not a mean and grovelling thing that we ar 
to shuffle through as best we can, but an elevate 
and lofty destiny.” And in his life he showe 
what a belief of that kind can do to inspire a ma 
to works of noble note. The type of imne 
thought that he cultivated is displayed by a 
entry from his diary which his biographer per 
mits himself to quote:—‘“In practice the grea 
end is that the Love of God may become a habi 
of my soul, and particularly these things are t 
be sought:—1. The spirit of Love. 2. of self 
sacrifice. 3. of purity. 4. of mercy.” When w 
come to think of it, there is evidence and to spar 
that life is both elevated and lofty: and that, i 
the special work to which we are called, there i 
no such thing as ultimate defeat. There i 
pioneer work to be done, and pioneer work i 
hard, but (as Mr. Arthur Jose has it) :— 


“Each camp-fire has marked a spot 
That men shall call their home.” 





GUIDANCE OF THE WISE = 197 


So take the road gaily with a gallant English 
poet, Arthur Clough :— | 


“Go with the sun and the stars, and yet evermore in the 
Spirit, 
Say to thyself, It is good, yet is there better than it. 
This that I see is not all, and this that I do is but little: 
Nevertheless it is good, though there is better than it.” 
So now we come to our conclusion, with four 
quotations from very different sources. ‘The first 
two hint at the fulfilment of our work, and what 
the outcome is to be when the chief Shepherd 
shall appear. We know that we shall need “our 
good and ill forgotten, and both forgiven by His 
abounding grace; but we may pray that, in this 
world, the evil that we do may not live after us, 
nor the good be interred with our bones, After 
Cardinal Newman died, Miss Rossetti wrote a 
poem on him, which ends with a prayer that we 
may make for each other and for ourselves :— 


“Now fixed and finished thine eternal plan. 
Thy best has done its best, thy worst its worst: 
Thy best its best, please God, thy best its best.” 
It was a Scottish poetess, writing from a Scottish 
manse, who lifted up her eyes behind the veil, and 
thought of what a man may feel, when he dis- 
covers how he has been used of God for purposes 
that stretch out into eternity. It was into the 


198 PUBLIC WORSHIP OF GOD 


mouth of Samuel Rutherford that she put the 
sudden exclamation,— 
“Ah! if one soul from Anwoth 
Meet me at God’s right hand, 


My heaven shall be two heavens 
In Immanuel’s land.” 


Meantime our work lies before us; let us turn to 
it with the inspiration of two sayings which touch 
upon the heart of the matter, for they deal with 
that inner enthusiasm of love without which no 
man shall be a preacher, or a minister, or, indeed, 
a true man at all. Of these, I take first a word 
from Izaak Walton, that lover of gentle places 
and gentle streams, and of the craft that sets the 
sign of serenity in a man’s eyes. He spoke of a 
greater fishing than he imagined when he said, 
“T am like to have a towardly scholar of you. I 
now see that with advice and practice you will 
make an angler in a short time. Have but a love 
of it, and I'll warrant you.” But of all such say- 
ings the one I like best comes from an English 
dean of the last generation, who found his rest 
and recreation in the growing of roses,—a seemly 
practice, surely, for a worker in God’s garden. 
He has written a charming book on the culture 
of his favourite flower,—the sort of book that 














GUIDANCE OF THE WISE = 199 


takes a man away from care and noise and battle, 
and sets him down in the midst of beauty and 
| peace. And he begins his instruction with a sen- 
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